Lawgist72State Government may invest Forest-officers with certain powers
(1) The51[State Government] may invest any Forest-officer with all or any of the following powers, that is to say:--
(a) power to enter upon any land and to survey, demarcate and make a map of the same;
(b) the powers of a Civil Court to compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of documents and material objects;
(c) power to issue a search-warrant under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (5 of 1898); and
(d) power to hold an inquiry into forest-offences, and, in the course of such inquiry, to receive and record evidence.
(2) Any evidence recorded under clause (d) of sub-section (1) shall be admissible in any subsequent trial before a Magistrate, provided that it has been taken in the presence of the accused person.
STATE AMENDMENT
Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh (UTs).--
Section 72.--For section 72, substitute the following section, namely;
72. Government of Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir may invest Forest officers with certain powers.- (1) The forest officers shall have the following powers, namely:-
(a) power to enter upon any land and to survey, demarcate and make a map of the same.
(b) the powers of a Civil Court to compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of documents and material objects;
(c) power to hold an inquiry into forest offences and in the course of such inquiry, to receive and record evidence; and
(d) power to issue search warrants under the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973 (2 of 1974):
Provided that powers under clause (b) and (c) shall not be exercised by a forest officer below the rank of a Range Officer:
Provided further that the powers under clause (d) shall not be exercised by a forest officer below the rank of a Divisional Forest Officer.
(2) Any evidence recorded under clause (c) of sub-section (1) shall be admissible in any subsequent trial before a Magistrate, if that it has been taken in the presence of the accused person.
(3) Any forest officer not below the rank of a Range Officer may delegate his powers of inquiry to an officer of the rank of Forester if the offence is compoundable under section 68 of this Act.
[Vide the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization (Adaptation of Central Laws) Order, 2020, notification No. S.O. 1123(E) dated (18-3-2020) and Vide Union Territory of Ladakh Reorganisation (Adaptation of Central Laws) Order, 2020, notification No. S.O.3774(E), dated (23-10-2020).]
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1. Subs. by the A.O. 1950, for "Provincial Government".
- 1 Short title and extent
- 2 Interpretation clause
- 3 Power to reserve forests
- 4 Notification by State Government
- 5 Bar of accrual of forest-rights
- 6 Proclamation by Forest Settlement-officer
- 7 Inquiry by Forest Settlement-officer
- 8 Powers of Forest Settlement-officer
- 9 Extinction of rights
- 10 Treatment of claims relating to practice of shifting cultivation
- 11 Power to acquire land over which right is claimed
- 12 Order on claims to rights of pasture or to forest-produce
- 13 Record to be made by Forest Settlement-officer
- 14 Record where he admits claim
- 15 Exercise of rights admitted
- 16 Commutation of rights
- 17 Appeal from order passed under section 11, section 12, section 15 or section 16
- 18 Appeal under section 17
- 19 Pleaders
- 20 Notification declaring forest reserved
- 21 Publication of translation of such notification in neighbourhood of forest
- 22 Power to revise arrangement made under section 15 or section 18
- 23 No right acquired over reserved forest, except as here provided
- 24 Rights not to be alienated without sanction
- 25 Power to stop ways and water-courses in reserved forests
- 26 Acts prohibited in such forests
- 27 Power to declare forest no longer reserved
- 28 Formation of village-forests
- 29 Protected forests
- 30 Power to issue notification reserving trees, etc
- 31 Publication of translation of such notification in neighbourhood
- 32 Power to make rules for protected forests
- 33 Penalties for acts in contravention of notification under section 30 or of rules under section 32
- 34 Nothing in this Chapter to prohibit acts done in certain cases
- 35 Protection of forests for special purposes
- 36 Power to assume management of forests
- 37 Expropriation of forests in certain cases
- 38 Protection of forests at request of owners
- 39 Power to impose duty on timber and other forest-produce
- 40 Limit not to apply to purchase-money or royalty
- 41 Power to make rules to regulate transit of forest-produce
- 41A Powers of Central Government as to movements of timber across customs frontiers
- 42 Penalty for breach of rules made under section 41
- 43 Governments and Forest-officers not liable for damage to forest-produce at depot
- 44 All persons bound to aid in case of accident at depot
- 45 Certain kinds of timber to be deemed property of Government until title thereto proved, and may be collected accordingly
- 46 Notice to claimants of drift-timber
- 47 Procedure on claim preferred to such timber
- 48 Disposal of unclaimed timber
- 49 Government and its officers not liable for damage to such timber
- 50 Payments to be made by claimant before timber is delivered to him
- 51 Power to make rules and prescribe penalties
- 52 Seizure of property liable to confiscation
- 53 Power to release property seized under section 52
- 54 Procedure thereupon
- 55 Forest-produce, tools, etc., when liable to confiscation
- 56 Disposal, on conclusion of trial for forest-offence, of produce in respect of which it was committed
- 57 Procedure when offender not known, or cannot be found
- 58 Procedure as to perishable property seized under section 52
- 59 Appeal from orders under section .55, section 56 or section 57
- 60 Property when to vest in Government
- 61 Saving of power to release property seized
- 62 Punishment for wrongful seizure
- 63 Penalty for counterfeiting or defacing marks on trees and timber and for altering boundary-marks
- 64 Power to arrest without warrant
- 65 Power to release on a bond a person arrested
- 66 Power to prevent commission of offence
- 67 Power to try offences summarily
- 68 Power to compound offences
- 69 Presumption that forest-produce belongs to Government
- 70 Cattle-trespass Act, 1871, to apply
- 71 Power to alter fines fixed under that Act
- 72 State Government may invest Forest-officers with certain powers
- 73 Forest-officers deemed public servants
- 74 Indemnity for acts done in good faith
- 75 Forest-officers not to trade
- 76 Additional powers to make rules
- 77 Penalties for breach of rules
- 78 Rules when to have force of law
- 79 Persons bound to assist Forest-officers and police-officers
- 80 Management of forests the joint property of Government and other persons
- 81 Failure to perform service for which a share in produce of Government forest is enjoyed
- 82 Recovery of money due to Government
- 83 Lien on forest-produce for such money
- 84 Land required under this Act to be deemed to be needed for a public purpose under the Land Acquisition Act, 1894
- 85 Recovery of penalties due under bond
- 85A Saving for rights of Central Government
- 86 [Repealed.]
