Agarwala, J.

1. The petitioners have been convicted of offences under Clauses (f) and (h) of Sec.26 (1), Forest Act, 1927 . The prosecution case is that they cultivated land which falls within a reserved forest and have cut down trees standing on that land. The defence was that the land which has been cleared does not fell within the reserved forest, and that it has been the raiyati land of the petitioners for many years. The prosecution produced and relied on a notification issued under Sec. 4 of the Act, and also led evidence that the land in question falls within the boundary pillars fixed lay the forest department, for proving that the land in question falls within the reserved forest. Now, the notification under Sec. 4 of the Act is merely a notification declaring the intention of Government to constitute certain land as a reserved forest and specifying as nearly as possible the situation and limits of such land. The following sections of the Act provide for the determination of rights in the land which it is sought to constitute as a reserved forest and similar matters. Then comes Sec.20 which is the section under which the forest is eventually constituted. That secti