- (1.) THE petitioners, 20 in number, are all residents of village, Rampur Thakra, Tehsil and District Bijnore. They are assailing the order dated 9.12.2013 passed by the second respondent, Forest Settlement Officer, District Bijnore rejecting their claim of occupying reserved forest land pursuant to the directions by this Court on 16.9.2013 in Amar Singh and 19 others vs. State of U.P. through Collector and others.
(2.) THE land in dispute over which the petitioners claim dependency on the forest land, was declared a reserved forest by the State in exercise of powers conferred under Section 20 of Indian Forest Act, 19272. Village Rampur Thakra was declared a reserved forest area on 12.7.1968. Section 20 is extracted below: - 20. Notification declaring forest reserved. -(1) When the following events have occurred, namely: - (a) the period fixed under Section 6 for preferring claims have elapsed and all claims if any made under that section or Section 9 have been disposed of by the Forest Settlement Officer; (b) if any such claims have been made, the period limited by Section 17 for appealing from the orders passed on such claims has elapsed, and all appeals (if any) presented within such period have been disposed of by the District Judge; and] (c) all lands (if any) to be included in the purposed forest, which the Forest Settlement Officer has, under Section 11, elected to acquire under the Land Acquisition Act, 1984 (1 of 1984), have become vested in the Government under Section 16 of that Act,
(3.) THE State Government shall publish a notification in the Official Gazette, specifying definitely, according to boundary -marks erected or otherwise, the limits of the forest which is to be reserved, and declaring the same to be reserved from a date fixed by the notification. (2) From the date so fixed such forest shall be deemed to be a reserved forest. As a consequence of the publication of a notification under Section 20, section 9 would indicate that all rights in respect of the land shall stand extinguished from the date of publication of such notification. Section 9 reads as follows: - 9. Extinction of rights. - Rights in respect of which no claim has been preferred under Section 6, and of the existence of which no knowledge has been acquired by inquiry under Section 7, shall be extinguished, unless before the notification under Section 20 is published, the person claiming them satisfies the Forest Settlement Officer that he had sufficient cause for not preferring such claim within the period fixed under Section 6. It is neither the case of the petitioners before us or before the Forest Settlement Officer District, Bijnore that the petitioners had agitated their rights as required prior to the publication of notification under Section 20. The Forest Settlement Officer on the contrary, in the impugned order, has noted that earlier proceedings were initiated against 47 encroachers, including the petitioners, for eviction from the reserved forest land notified in 1968. The aggrieved persons had preferred a petition being writ petition no. 53504 of 2004 (Ram Kumar Jatav and others vs. State of U.P. and others) which was dismissed on 2.9.2011. Consequently measures were taken to free the forest land from the encroachers. Section 23 of the Act would provide that no right could have been acquired over a reserved forest except as provided thereunder. Section 26 of the Act prohibits use of a reserved forest for any other purpose. Section 23 is as follows: - 23. No right acquired over reserved forest, except as here provided. - - No right of any description shall be acquired in or over a reserved forest except by succession or under a grant or contract in writing made by or on behalf of the Government or some person in whom such right was vested when the notification under Section 20 was issued. ;