Judgment

AYYANGAR, J. : This appeal comes before us on a certificate granted by High Court of Patna under Art. 133(1) of the Constitution.

2. The appellant had filed a suit against the State of Bihar before the Subordinate Judge, Daltonganj and had succeeded in obtaining a decree in his favour the details of which we shall presently narrate. The State preferred an appeal to the High Court and by the judgment now under appeal the learned Judges of the High Court had allowed the appeal and dismissed the suit with costs, and the plaintiff has come up on appeal to this court.

3. The facts giving rise to the suit and the appeal may now be briefly stated. The village of Jun in the district of Palamau in the State of Bihar was within the estate of the Raja of Ranka. This proprietor had granted a mokarari lease of the village which consisted mostly of forest lands, in favour of certain persons who have been referred to in these proceedings as the Manjhis. The Manjhis in their turn entered into a registered agreement on February 23, 1946 with Gurudutt Sharma-the appellant before us, whereby the latter was, in consideration of the payment of a sum of Rs. 6,000, granted the right to cut and remove bamboos and certain other timber to be found in a specified area of this forest-village. This right the appellant was to have for a period of 8 years ending on March 1, 1954. By a further deed executed on March 15, 1946 which was however unregistered, the Manjhis granted to the appellant the right to pluck, or collect and carry away bidi leaves in the same forest area for a period of 9 years ending March 1, 1955 for a consideration of Rs. 200, It is the case of the appellant that immediately after these deeds were executed, he started cutting the trees and otherwise exercising the rights granted to him under them.

4. Meanwhile the Governor of Bihar who had, by proclamation issued by him under S. 93 of the Government of India Act, 1935, assumed to himself the powers vested in the Provincial Legislature, enacted in exercise of the powers so assumed, the Bihar Private Forests Act, 1946 (Bihar Act III of 1946). It is the validity of this enactment and the interpretation of its provisions and of the similar provisions in the Bihar Private Forests Act, 1947 (Bihar Act IX of 1948), by which it was repealed and re-enacted, that form the main subject of controversy in this appeal. It is therefore necessary to set out certain of the relevant provisions and also the action taken under them in order to appreciate the contentions raised by learned Counsel for the appellant. The Governor s Act of 1946 extended to the whole of the Province of Bihar and came into force on February 25, 1946, when having received the assent of the Governor-General it was first published in the Bihar Gazette. There were certain forests which were excepted from the operation of this Act by its second section, but the forests in the village of Jun with which this appeal is concerned were not among them. The Act contained the definition of a "landlord" as meaning the owner of the estate or tenure in which a forest is comprised who is entitled to exercise any rights in the forests. It is obvious that the Manjhis would be "landlords" within this definition. Section 4 of this Act enacted:

"The rights of the landlord and ......the rights of any other person to cut, collect or remove trees, timber or other forest produce in or from.... in any forest shall not be exercised in contravention of the provisions made in or under this Act."

There were other restrictions on the rights of landlords or persons claiming through them but these are not very material for the point required to be decided in this appeal. Chapter III of this enactment which comprised Ss. 13 to 30 dealt with "private protected forests" which were defined in S. 3(10) as a forest specified in a notification issued under sub-s. (1) of S. 29. Section 13 with which this Chapter opens made provision for the Provincial Government.