Case: State of Bihar vs Munshi Kahar - AIR 1963 Pat 195, 1963 CriLJ 605

- Munshi Kahar and others were found to be ploughing a portion of the land in Sulumdag in the district of Palamau. About six acres in that plot were found to have been cultivated by the respondents. The land tell within the demarcated area of a protected forest in regard to which a notification contemplated by Section 29 of the Forest Act had been issued by the State Government in July 1955.

- Munshi Kahar and others were prosecuted for having committed an offence under Section 33(1)(c), which makes it an offence to break up or clear for cultivation or any other purpose any land in any protected forest, contrary to any prohibition under Section 30 of the Act.

- The defence case, however, is that the respondents were in cultivating possession of the disputed land on behalf of their maliks for some six years prior to the time of the occurrence and that their right to continue the cultivation work was not taken away by the issue of the notification under the Forest Act, referred to above. In support of their case of cultivation from previous years, the respondents adduced oral and some documentary evidence.

- The learned magistrate has held that the act of the respondents in ploughing a portion of PF did not constitute any offence since an act of continued cultivation of a cultivable land does not amount to breaking up or clearing the land within the meaning of Section 33(1) (c) of the Act.

-The respondents having been acquitted, the State of Bihar had appealed to High Court.

Judgment:

- In the first place, the mere production of the Bihar Gazette containing the notification of May 1958 is not enough. It would also have to be proved that the notification, had been published in accordance with the provisions, contained in Section 31 of the Act, which reads that the Collector shall cause a translation into the local vernacular of every notification issued under Section 30 to be affixed in a conspicuous place in every town and village in the neighbourhood of the forest comprised in the notification.

- No evidence has been led on behalf of the prosecution to show that the act of ploughing in which the respondents were found to be engaged on the date of the occurrence was an act of breaking up or clearing for cultivation the land demarcated as a protected forest.

-The expression breaking up or clearing for cultivation occurring in Section 33(1) (c), does not extend to the prohibition of cultivation of such land which has already been broken up or cleared and brought into cultivation from before the issue of the notification. The appeal is, therefore, dismissed.

Case: State of Bihar vs Munshi Kahar - AIR 1963 Pat 195, 1963 CriLJ 605

- Munshi Kahar and others were found to be ploughing a portion of the land in Sulumdag in the district of Palamau. About six acres in that plot were found to have been cultivated by the respondents. The land tell within the demarcated area of a protected forest in regard to which a notification contemplated by Section 29 of the Forest Act had been issued by the State Government in July 1955.
- The defence case, however, is that the respondents were in cultivating possession of the disputed land on behalf of their maliks for some six years prior to the time of the occurrence and that their right to continue the cultivation work was not taken away by the issue of the notification under the Forest Act, referred to above. In support of their case of cultivation from previous years, the respondents adduced oral and some documentary evidence.
- The learned magistrate has held that the act of the respondents in ploughing a portion of PF did not constitute any offence since an act of continued cultivation of a cultivable land does not amount to breaking up or clearing the land within the meaning of Section 33(1) (c) of the Act.
- The respondents having been acquitted, the State of Bihar had appealed to High Court.

Judgment:

- In the first place, the mere production of the Bihar Gazette containing the notification of May 1958 is not enough. It would also have to be proved that the notification, had been published in accordance with the provisions, contained in Section 31 of the Act, which reads that the Collector shall cause a translation into the local vernacular of every notification issued under Section 30 to be affixed in a conspicuous place in every town and village in the neighbourhood of the forest comprised in the notification.
- No evidence has been led on behalf of the prosecution to show that the act of ploughing in which the respondents were found to be engaged on the date of the occurrence was an act of breaking up or clearing for cultivation the land demarcated as a protected forest.
- The expression breaking up or clearing for cultivation occurring in Section 33(1) (c), does not extend to the prohibition of cultivation of such land which has already been broken up or cleared and brought into cultivation from before the issue of the notification. The appeal is, therefore, dismissed.