IN THE HIGH COURT OF MADHYA PRADESH AT JABALPUR BEFORE HON'BLE SHRI JUSTICE VIVEK AGARWAL th ON THE 6 OF JULY, 2023 WRIT PETITION No. 9782 of 2019 BETWEEN:-

JHABBOO S/O SHRI NAND LAL GOLI, AGED ABOUT 45 YEAR S , OCCUPATION: AGRICULTURE, VILLAGE JADIYA, TEHSIL BHAISDEHI, DISTRICT BETUL (MADHYA PRADESH)

.....PETITIONER (BY SHRI SANJAY PATEL - ADVOCATE)

AND

1. BOARD OF REVENUE GWALIOR / DISTRICT GWALIOR (MADHYA PRADESH)

2. COMMISSIONER DIVISION NARMADAPURAM, HOSHANGABAD, DISTRICT HOSHANGABAD (MADHYA PRADESH)

3. THE COLLECTOR BETUL, DISTRICT BETUL (MADHYA PRADESH)

4. CONSERVATOR OF FOREST (WEST) FOREST DIVISION DISTRICT BETUL (MADHYA PRADESH)

5. SUB DIVISIONAL OFFICER RANGE OFFICE MOHDA FOREST DIVISION, TAWADI BETUL (MADHYA PRADESH)

6. NAIB TAHSILDAR BHIMPUR TAPPA TAHSIL BHAISDEHI, DISTRICT BETUL (MADHYA PRADESH)

.....RESPONDENTS (BY SHRI LOKESH JAIN - PANEL LAWYER)

This petition coming on for admission this day, the court passed the following:

Signature Not Verified Signed by: PUSHPENDRA

ORDER

This writ petition is filed by the petitioner being aggrieved of the order dated 06.03.2019 (Annexure P-3) passed by the President, Board of Revenue, Madhya Pradesh, Gwalior in case No.PVR/Nigrani/Betul/Bhu. Ra./2018/2245.

2. Petitioner's contention is that petitioner is owner of land contained in Survey No.233 measuring 0.482 hectares and Survey No.234 measuring 0.313 hectares. He had taken permission to cut Sagwan trees standing on the said land from the concerned forest officials. In fact it is evident from the communication made by the Divisional Forest Officer, West Betul (General) Forest Division addressed to the Collector, Betul that vide order dated 07.06.2008, permission was granted to Late Smt. Durpati Wd/o Shri Nandlal Gawli, R/o Village Jadiya to cut 60 trees under the Lok Vaniki Prabhandh Yojana from Khasra Nos.233, 234, 263 measuring 2.431 hectares.

3. It is submitted by Shri Sanjay Patel, learned counsel for the petitioner that in pursuance of this permission, trees were cut but later on an allegation was made that some of these trees were cut from the Government land contained in Survey No.235/1, as a result, case for forest offence was registered against the petitioner.

4. Petitioner's contention is that these trees were transported to the forest depot and when a case was registered against the owner of the lorry in which trees were being transported then he had filed W.P. No.13152/2008 (Ravi Dubey and others Vs. The State of Madhya Pradesh and others) in which a coordinate bench of this Court vide order dated 13.05.2009, decided the writ petition after making certain observations which are pertinent for decision in this writ petition.

5. Shri Lokesh Jain, learned Panel Lawyer, in his turn, submits that Signature Not Verified Signed by: PUSHPENDRA Collector, Commissioner and the Board of Revenue have reached to a correct conclusion that in the earlier Panchanama which was prepared in the year 2008 and which contains signatures of the petitioner, there is a mention of cutting of only 9 trees from the land of the petitioner and remaining trees were cut from Bade Jhaad ka Jungle. It is, thus, submitted that the guilt of the petitoner is self explanatory and thus, the orders passed by the authorities namely, Collector, Betul, Commissioner, Narmadapuram and the learned Board of Revenue, do not call for any interference.

6. An interesting fact of this case is that in para 15 of the order dated 13.05.2009 passed in W.P. No.13152/2008 (Ravi Dubey and others Vs. The State of Madhya Pradesh and others), a coordinate Bench has made a specific observation that Smt. Durpati was in possession of a valid sanction to cut 60 trees standing on her land. These trees were cut in the presence of forest officials who had supervised the loading thereof in respective trucks. This fact is corroborated from Annexure R-1 dated 07.06.2008 filed by the respondents- State issued by the Divisional Forest Officer, West Betul (General) Forest Division, wherein it is mention