DIVISIONAL FOREST OFFICER Vs. MOHD HANIF

JUDGEMENT

(1.) C .M. No. 9853-C of 2008. For the reasons recorded in the application, delay of 3 days in filing the appeal is condoned. C.M. stands disposed of. R.S.A. No. 3306 of 2008 (O&M) This is defendants' second appeal challenging the judgment and decrees of the Courts below whereby the suit of the plaintiff-respondent for permanent injunction restraining the defendants from cutting and removing the Safeda trees standing in hi land has been decreed.

(2.) NOTICE of the suit was given to the defendants. Written statement on behalf of defendants No. 1 has been filed who has assailed the suit of the plaintiff on numerous grounds but primarily it has been maintained that the trees in dispute were planted by the Forest Department within the road limits known as Chhachrouli-Bilaspur road and all these trees were looked after and nourished by the Forest Department and these trees have been numbered as 103, 105, 106 and 107 in the final record. Hence, defendants are owners in possession of the land in dispute as well as the trees in question. Moreover, the area in which the trees are standing has also been declared as protected forest by Haryana Government vide notification No. S.065/C.A.-16/27/S.29/71 dated 11.6.1971 and all those trees which were planted by the Forest Department within the road limits in the Government land were the ownership of the defendants. It has been further averred by the defendants that for proper adjudication of the matter in dispute the demarcation of the land in question should be got conducted in the presence of Halqa Kanungo/Patwari as it shall be beneficial for the proper adjudication of the present matter, with these assertions, the defendants have prayed for dismissal of the present suit.

(3.) FEELING aggrieved, the defendants have filed this appeal challenging the judgment and decrees of the Courts below.