MOSLEM SIRKAR Vs. EMPEROR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) These are two Rules issued by this Court in a case arising in connexion with a forest called the Atia Pargana, a large tract of land in the district of Mymensingh, which is described as interspersed with jungles and trees between cultivations, and inhabited by 1,00,000 people. The Rule No. 599 is in respect of some seven persons who have been convicted under Secs.143, 224, 225 and also 225/114 of the Indian Penal Code, and sentenced to divers terms oil imprisonment. These accused have been convicted, to put the matter shortly, for obstructing the forest officer by rescuing from his lawful custody certain persons whom he had apprehended on the ground that they were cutting gazari trees in, this forest; those trees having been reserved.

(2.) The Second Rule No. 600 deals with three people, the people who were in the custody of the forest officer, and who have been convicted under Section 32 of the= Indian Forest Act, being Act VII of 1878, for cutting these gazari trees. It will be-sufficient for the present purpose to take those Rules together.

(3.) It appears that this forest has not yet been made a reserved forest by any notification finally operative under Section 19 of the Act. The notifications with which we are concerned are notifications, in respect of protected forests, and they are two in number. The first is dated the 16 February 1925. It recites that, owners of more than two-thirds of the shares of the land had represented in. writing their desire that the said lands be managed on their behalf by the Government forest officer and so on. It goes on to say: In the exercise of the power conferred by the penultimate paragraph of Section 38 of the Indian Forest Act, the Governor-in-Council is pleased to apply to the said land the provisions of Section 2 and Secs.28 to 33 both inclusive of the said Act.