This paper examines the status of community rights under Community Forestry (CF) in Nepal. It takes approval, renewal and implementation of operational plans as the basis for assessing community rights. Based on three cases-one each from the three ecological sites in Nepal, the paper examines how community rights are shaped by the regulatory framework, behaviour of the forest bureaucracy, community institutions and political constituency around the CF programme. It shows that, despite official handover of community forests, their users are restricted from exercising their rights guaranteed by the country’s policies and laws. It is observed that a latent hesitation exists among government field offices to fully transfer the rights to communities.