Judgement

DAS GUPTA, J.: This appeal by the State of Bihar challenges the correctness of an order made by the High Court at Patna in an application by the respondent under Art. 226 of the Constitution. The respondent was inducted as a tenant on a tract of land measuring 245.69 acres in village Singpur by the then proprietor in November, 1945, and continued to remain in possession after the Zemindari interest of the proprietor became vested in the State of Bihar in consequence of a notification under the Bihar Land Reforms Act (Bihar Act XXX of 1952) on the 20th December 1952. In 1945 this area was forest land. On September 15, 1946, a notification was published under S. 14 of the Bihar Private Forest Act, 1946 declaring the Government s intention of constituting the forest a private protected forest. By the same notification the Governor further ordered that until the publication of a notification under S. 30 of the Act all the rights to cut, collect and remove trees or any class of trees in or from the forest shall cease to exist subject to conditions and specifications specified in the Second Schedule. The result of this notification was that immediately on its publication in the