Indian fishing communities and farmers represented by EarthRights International (ERI) said today that they will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review a decision finding the World Bank Group is entitled to “absolute immunity” from suits in U.S. courts. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled yesterday that it would not reconsider its immunity rule, despite the fact that one judge has stated that this rule is “wrong.” The D.C. Circuit left standing a decision that the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private lending arm of the World Bank Group, could not be sued for its role in the controversial Tata Mundra coal-fired power plant that has devastated communities in Gujarat, India…

“The court’s decision tells the world that the doors of justice are not open to the poor and marginalized when it comes to powerful institutions like IFC,” said Gajendrasinh Jadeja, the head of Navinal Panchayat, a local village involved in the case. “But no one should be above the law.”…