Bhawani Singh, J.—This writ petition is off-shot of Civil Writ Petition No. 707 of 1992 and 42 of 1990 decided by the Full Bench of this Court on May 9, 1994, AIR 1995 HP 15, Mohinder Pal v. State of H P Narration of the essential facts of Writ Petition No 707 of 1992 would be necessary to understand the matter and appreciate the submissions advanced before us by the learned Counsel for the parties.

2. The petitioner claims to be the descendant of the Pal family of Kutlehar, a small principality in Katigra hills, now forms part of the State of Himachal Pradesh from November 1, 1966 It came into existence 300-400 years ago and was ruled by his ancestors. It was divided into sixteen Tappas (chunks of land), four were Jagir ‘Tappas and 12 Khalsa Tappas. In four Jagir Tappas5, laad revenue to the extent of Rs. 10,000 was assigned to his forefathers by way of Jagir. In addition to these four Tappas, about twenty thousand acres of land belonged to Bartandars (right-holders). It was not used for agriculture purposes. The forefathers of the petitioner had grown large number of trees over it from period before 1868 A.D. They protected and maintained these trees while Bartandars’ were