RAM KARAN OJHA Vs. BOARD OF REVENUE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Assistant Settlement Officer, Forest Department under his order dated 5th July, 1972 (Annexure -H) in exercise of the powers conferred on him Under Section 11 of the Rajasthan Forest Act, 1959 (for short 'the Act') excluded Khasra No. 815 and 816 measuring 14 Bighas and 36 Bighas 15 Biswas in all 50 Bighas and 15 Biswas, situated in village Dang, Tehsil Kishangarh, District Ajmer from the area of the protected forest on the ground that the petitioner was the Khatedar of the land in dispute. Feeling the aggrieved against the aforesaid order the Gram Panchayat Sandolia, Tehsil Kishangarh preferred an appeal to the Collector, Ajmer and learned Collector allowed the appeal under its order dated 24th January, 1974. The petitioner preferred a revision petition against the aforesaid order before the Board of Revenue, Ajmer and the learned Board of Revenue under its order dated 12th September, 1977 dismissed the revision petition.

(2.) THE case of the petitioner is that he was recorded as Khatedar of the aforesaid agricultural land in dispute and in the Samvat year 2004 the said lands in dispute were made over to Forest Settlement Department of the former State of Kishangarh on management basis by the father of the petitioner Lukshmi Narain, he being old and unable to cultivate personally and proportionate proceedings in money were agreed to be paid to the petitioner's father Lakshmi Narain out of the total Theka amount of the State 'Beed.' After the merger of the erstwhile State of Kishangarh into the State of Rajasthan, the State Government under Sub -section (3) of section 29 of the Act notified the area as protected forest area and the lands in dispute were also included therein. Objections were preferred by Lakshmi Narain claiming to be Khatedar tenant of the said lands and for release of the same from the forest area, to the Assistant Settlement Officer, who under his order dated July 5, 1972 as already stated, allowed the claim and released the above lands and excluded the area from the proposed protected forest area. But in an appeal that order was set -aside by the Collector, Ajmer which order was maintained by the Board of Revenue, Ajmer.

(3.) WE have considered the contentions in the light of the provisions of the law and also heard learned Dy. Government Advocate. It will appear from the order of the learned Collector made in an appeal filed by Gram Panchayat Sandolia that the land was in the name of Lakshmi Narain s/o Sheo Bux and Laxmi Narain had never appeared in the proceedings and the statement of Ram Karan only was recorded. The leaarned Collector further stated that although it has been stated in the order that the original pass book was seen by the court but no authentic record of the Tehsil has been placed on the file and an alleged copy of the pass book has been taken on record, but it was not certified as a true copy by any officer and, therefore, no reliance on the same can be placed. The learned Collector further stated that the order is supposed to have been made Under Section 11 of the Rajasthan Forest Act but Section 11 is a part of the procedure prescribed for declaring any area as a Reserve Forest. He further observed that the aforesaid Section will only apply to the lands which are proposed to be declared as Reserve Forest and it does not apply to lands which are included in the Reserve Forest and have been notified by the Government as such. The opinion of the learned Collector is that the power to take out any area from the Reserve Forest vests clearly with the State Government and not with the Forest Settlement Officer. The learned Collector set -aside the order dt. 5th July, 1972 passed by the Assistant Forest Settlement Officer, with the above observations.