JUDGMENT :

Hon’ble Subhash Vidyarthi J.

1. Heard Sri Mohd. Arif Khan Senior Advocate assisted by Sri U. S. Sahai Advocate, the learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri Kuldeep Pati Tripathi, the learned Additional Advocate General assisted by Sri Arya Shreshtha Tiwari, the learned Additional Chief Standing Counsel.

2. Briefly stated, the facts pleaded in the Writ Petition are that the State Government had issued a notification dated 19.04.1954 under Section 4 of the Forest Act, 1927 for constituting certain lands as a reserved forest. The petitioner filed objections before the Forest Officer stating that he was the Seerdar of the land in question and the erstwhile Zamindar Rani Kaneez Bakar had executed a lease-deed in her favour on 06.05.1951 for cultivation purpose. Some Mahuatrees were existing on the land in dispute, which had been sold to the petitioner for a sale consideration of Rs.2,000/-.

3. The Forest Settlement Officer passed an order dated 13.04.1957 stating that the owner of the land had executed a patta in favour of the petitioner on 06.07.1951, hence the proceedings were dropped and the land was released in favour of the lessee.

4. The Forest Department challenged the o