Section 2

Amendment status not verified — confirm the current text below against the official source.

Substituted vide Nagaland Act 9 of 1969. Alienation of rights in reserved forest.- 21. (1) Notwithstanding anything herein contained, no right continued under section 12 shall be alienated by way of grant, sale, lease, mortgage, or otherwise without the previous sanction of the State Government: Provided that, when any such right is continued for the beneficial enjoyment of any land or building, it may be sold or otherwise alienated with such land or building without such sanction. (2) The benefit of any right continued under section 12 shall not be leased, sold or bartered except to the extent defined by the order recorded under that section. Power to stop ways and watercourses in reserved forest.- 22. Any Forest Officer may, from time to time, with the previous sanction of the State Government or of a Forest Officer or other officer authorized by the State Government in this behalf, stop any public or private way or watercourse in a reserved forest: Provided that for the way or watercourse so stopped another way or watercourse which, in the opinion of the State Government, is equally convenient, already exists or has been provided or constructed by the Forest Officer stopping the way or watercourse. Penalties for trespass or damage in reserved forests.- 23. Any person who in a reserved forest – (a) trespass, or pastures cattle, or permits cattle to trespass, or (b) causes any damage by negligence in felling any tree or cutting or dragging any timber, shall be punished with fine which may extend to fifty rupees, or, when the damage resulting from his offence amounts to more than twenty five rupees to double the amount of such damage. Acts prohibited in such forest. – 24. Any person who – (a) makes any fresh clearing prohibited by section 6, or (b) sets fire to a reserved forest, or in contravention of any rules made by the State Government, kindles any fire, or leaves any fire burning, in such manner as to endanger such a forest, or who in any such forest, (c) kindles, keeps or carries any fire except at such seasons and in such manner as a Forest Officer specially empowered in this behalf may from time to time notify, or (d) fells, cuts, girdles, marks, lops, taps, or injures by fire or otherwise any tree, or (e) quarries stone, burns lime or charcoal, or collects subject to any manufacturing process or removes any forest produce, or (f) clears or breaks up any land for cultivation or for any other purpose, or (g) poisons water or in contravention of any rules made by the State Government, hunts, shoots, fishes, or sets traps or snares shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or with the fine which may extend to one thousand rupees, or with both. Acts excepted from sections 23 and 24.- 25. Nothing in section 23 or section 24 shall be deemed to prohibit – (a) any practice of jhum cultivation permitted under section 9, or (b) the exercise, in accordance with the rules if any, made by the State Government under section 12 of any right continued under that section, or (c) the exercise of any right created by grant or contract in the manner described in section 20, or (d) any act done with the permission in writing of a Forest Officer specially empowered to grant such permission. Penalty for offences committed by persons having rights in reserved forest.- 26. Whenever fire is caused willfully or by gross negligence in a reserved forest by any person having rights in such forest or permission to practice jhum cultivation therein, or by any person, in his employment, or whenever any person having rights in such forest contravenes the provisions of section 21, the State Government may, notwithstanding the infliction of any punishment under this Act, direct that in such forest, or any specified portion thereof the exercise of all or any of the rights of pasture or to forest produce shall be extinguished, or for such period as it thinks fit be suspended and, with respect to the practice of jhum cultivation, may take such action under section 90, sub-section (4) as may seem to be proper. (2) From the date so fixed such forest or portion shall cease to be reserved, but the rights, if any, which have been extinguished therein shall not revive in consequence of such cessation. CHAPTER III Village Forests Constitution of village forest.- 28. (1) The State Government, may, by notification in the Official Gazette, constitute any land at the disposal of the Government a village forest for the benefit of any village community or group of village communities, and may in like manner vary or cancel any such notification. (2) Every such notification shall specify the limits of such village forest. Powers to make rules for village forest.- 29. (1) The State Government may make rules for regulating the management of village forest, prescribing the conditions under which the community or group of communities, for the benefit of which any such forest is constituted may be provided with forest produce or with pasture, and their duties in respect of the protection and improvement of such forest. (2) The State Government may by such rules declare any of the provisions of Chapter II of this Act to be applicable to village forest. Inquiry into and settlement of rights.- 30. All claims to any rights other than the rights of the village community or group of village communities of for the benefit of which such village forest is constituted, shall be inquired into, recorded, and provided for in the manner prescribed by Chapter II of this Act. CHAPTER IV General Protection of Forests and Forest Produce Reserved trees in unsettled tracts.- 31. The State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette,- (a) declare that any trees or any specified class of trees standing on any land at the disposal of the Government shall, from a date to be fixed by such notification, be reserved trees; (b) vary or cancel any such notification. Protection of reserved trees.-32. No person shall fell, cut, girdle, mark, lop, tap, or injure by fire or otherwise any reserved trees, except in accordance with rules made by the State Government in this behalf, or as provided by the last section of this Chapter. Protection of unsettled forest belonging to the Government.- 33. (1) No person shall make use of any forest produce of any land at the disposal of the Government and not included in a reserved forest or village forest, except in accordance with rules to be made by the State Government in this behalf, or as provided by the last section of this Chapter. (2) Such rules may, with respect to such land: - (a) regulate or prohibit the cutting of jhums or the issue of grants or leases on behalf of the Government; (b) regulate or prohibit the kindling or fires, and prescribe the precautions to be taken to prevent the spreading of fires; (c) regulate or prohibit the felling, cutting, girdling, marking, lopping, tapping, or injuring by fire or otherwise of any trees, the sawing, conversion , and removal of timber, and the collection and removal of other forest produce; (d) regulate or prohibit the quarrying of stone, the boiling of catechu, of the burning of lime or charcoal; (e) regulate or prohibit the cutting of grass and pasturing of cattle, and regulate the payments, if any, to be made for such cutting or pasturing; (f) prohibit the poisoning of water and regulate or prohibit hunting, shooting and fishing, and the setting of traps or snares; (g) regulate the sale of free grant of forest produce; and (h) prescribe or authorize any Forest Officer to prescribe, subject to the control of the State Government, the fees, royalties, or other payments for forest produce, and the manner in which such fees, royalties, or other payment are to be levied, whether in transit, or partly in transit, or otherwise. (3) The State Government may exempt any person or class of persons, or any local area, from the operation of any such rule, and may cancel such exemption. Penalties.- 34.(1) If any person infringes the provisions of section 32, he shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine which may extend to five hundred rupees, or with both. (2) The State Government may, by a rule under section 33, attach to the breach of any rule under that section any punishment not exceeding that mentioned in sub-section (1). Nothing in this Chapter to prohibit acts done in certain case.- 35. Nothing in this Chapter, or in any rule under this Chapter, shall be deemed to prohibit any act done in the exercise of any right or with the permission in writing of a Forest Officer specially empowered to grant such permission. CHAPTER V Control over Forest and Waste Land not being the property of Government. Protection of Forests for special purposes.- 36. (1) The State Government may, by notification in the local Official Gazette, regulate or prohibit in any forest or waste-land- (a) the breaking up or clearing of land; (b) the pasturing of cattle; or (c) the firing, clearing or the vegetation; when such regulation or prohibition appears necessary in the public interest for any of the following purposes: - (i) for protection against storms, winds, rolling stones, floods and avalanches; (ii) for the preservation of the soil on the ridges and slopes and in the valleys of hilly tracts, the prevention of land slips or of the formation of ravines and torrents or the protection of land against erosion, or the deposit thereon of sand, stones or gravel; (iii) For the maintenance of water-supply in springs, rivers and tanks; (iv) for the protection of public roads, public bridges, railways, and other lines of communication; (v) for the preservation of the public health. (2) The State Government may, for any such purposes, construct at its own expense, in or upon any forest of waste land, such work as it thinks fit. (3) No notification shall be made under sub-section (1) nor shall any work be begun under sub-section (2), until after the issue of a notice to the owner of such forest or land calling on him to show cause within a reasonable period to be specified in such notice, why such notification should not be made or work constructed, as the case may be, and until his objections, if any, and evidence he may produce in support of the same, have been heard by an officer not below the rank of a Deputy Commissioner duly appointed in that behalf. (4) All objections filed under the preceding sub-section, together with the proceeding the Special Officer relating thereto, shall be referred to the State Government for orders. On receipt of such reference and after hearing such further cause as the objector may have to show, the State Government shall pass such orders as it thinks fit. In any case in which an order under sub-section (1) or action under sub-section (2) is, in the opinion of the State Government, likely to disturb substantially the owner’s rights in the land to which such order or action relates, the State Government may award to such owner such compensation as it may deem equitable. Provided that any compensation so paid shall be paid deducted from the amount payable to the owner under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894, in the event of action being taken under the provisions of section 38. Power to assume management of forest.- 37. (1) In case of neglect of or willful disobedience to, any regulation or prohibitions under section 36, or if the purposes of any work to be constructed under that section so require, the State Government may, after notice in writing to the owner of such forest or land and after considering his objections, if any, place the same under control and management of a Forest Officer and may declare that all or any of the provisions of this Act shall apply to such forest or land. (2) The net profits, if any, arising from the management of such forest or land shall be paid to the said owner. Expropriation of forests in certain cases. – 38. (1) In any case under this Chapter in which the State Government considers that in lieu of placing the forest or land under the control and management of a Forest Officer, the same should be acquired for public purposes the State Government may proceed to acquire it in the manner provided by the Land Acquisition Act, 1894. (2) The owner of any forest or land comprised in any notification under section 38, or if there be more than one owner thereof, the owners of shares therein amounting in the aggregate to at least two-thirds thereof, may at any time not less than three or more than twelve years from the date thereof, require that such forest or land shall be acquired for public purposes and the State Government shall acquire such forest or land accordingly. Protection of forest at request of owner.- 39. (1) The owner of any land or, if there be more than one owner thereof, the owners of shares therein amounting in the aggregate to at least two-thirds thereof may, with a view to the formation or conservation of forest thereon, represent in writing to the Deputy Commissioner their desire; (a) that such land be managed on their behalf by the Forest Officer on such terms as may be mutually agreed upon, or (b) that all or any of the provisions of this Act be applied to such land. (2) In either (case)1 the State Government may, by notification in the local Official Gazette, apply to such land such provisions of this Act as it thinks suitable to the circumstances thereof and as may be desired by the applicants. CHAPTER VI CONTROL OF FOREST PRODUCE IN TRANSIT Power to make rules to regulate transit of forest produce.- 40. (1) The control of all rivers and their banks as regards the floating of timber, as well as the control of forest produce in transit by land or water, is vested in the State Government, and the Government may make rules to regulate the transit of any forest produce. (2) Such rules may, among other matters. (a) prescribe the routes by which alone forest produce may be imported into, exported from or moved within, to the territories which this Act extends; (b) prohibit the import, export, collection or moving forest produce without a pass from an officer authorized to issue the same, or otherwise than in accordance with the conditions of such pass; (c) provide for the issue, production and return of such passes; (d) fix or authorize any Forest Officer, subject to the control of the State Government, to fix the fees payable for such passes; (e) in the caser of timber formed into a raft or fastened to the shore, prohibit the loosening or the setting adrift of such timber by any person not the owner thereof or not acting on behalf of such owner or of the Government. (f) Provide for the stoppage, reporting, examination, and marking forest produce in transit in respect o which there is reason to believe that any money is payable to the Government or to which it is desirable, for the purposes of this Act, to affix a mark; (g) Established revenue stations to which forest produce is to be taken by the persons in charge or for examination, or for the realization of such money, ____________________________________________________________________ 1 Inserted vide Nagaland Act 9 of 1969. or in order that such mark may be affixed to it, and prescribe, or authorize a Forest Officer subject to such control as aforesaid to prescribe, conditions under which forest produce is to be brought; stored at, and removed from such revenue stations; (h) provide for the management and control of such revenue stations and for regulating the appointment and duties of persons employed thereat; (i) authorize the transport of timber across any land and provide for the award and payment of compensation for any damage done by transport of such timber; (j) Prohibit the closing up or obstruction of the channel or banks of any river used for the transit of forest produce, and the throwing of grass, bushwood, branches or leaves into any such river, or any other act which tends to cause the obstruction of such channel; (k) Provide for the prevention and removal of any obstruction in the channel or on the banks of any such river and for recovering the cost of such prevention or removal from the person causing such obstruction; (l) Prohibit absolutely or subject to conditions within specified local limits, the establishment of sawpits, the converting, cutting, burning, concealing, marking or super marking of timber, the altering or effacing of any marks on the same and possession or carrying of marking hammers or other implements used for marking timber; and (m) Regulate the use of property-marks for timber and the registration of such marks, authorize the refusal or cancellation of the registration of any property marks, prescribe the time for which the registration of property marks is hold good, limit the number of such marks which may be registered by any one person and provide for the levy of fees for such registration. (3) The State Government may direct that any rule made under this section shall not apply to any specified class of timber or other forest produce or to any specified local area. Penalties for breach of rules under the last foregoing section. – 41. (1) The State Government may, by rule under the last foregoing section, attach to the breach of any rule under that section any punishment not exceeding imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or fine which may extend to five hundred rupees, or both. (2) In cases where the offence is committed after sunset and before sunrise or after preparation resistance to the execution of any law or any legal process, or where the offender has been previously convicted of a like offence, the conviction court may inflict double the penalty prescribed for such offence. All persons bound to aid in case of accident at revenue station. – 42. In case of any accident or emergency involving danger to any property at a revenue station, established under a rule made under section 40, every person employed at such revenue station, whether by the Government or by any private person, shall render assistance to any Forest Officer or Police Officer demanding his aid in such danger and securing such property from damage or loss. CHAPTER VII Collection of drift, stranded and other timber Certain kinds of timber to be deemed the property of the State Government until title thereto proved. – 43. (1) Timber falling under any of the following descriptions, namely. – (a) Timber found adrift, beached, stranded, or sunk, (b) Timber bearing marks which had not been registered under section 40, (c) Timber which has been super marked, or on which marks have been obliterated, altered, or defaced by fire or otherwise, and (d) In such areas as the State Government directs, all marked timber shall be deemed to be the property of the State Government unless and until any person established his right thereto as provided in this Chapter. (2) Such timber may be collected by any Forest Officer or other person entitled to collect the same, ;and may be brought to such stations as a Forest Officer specially empowered in this behalf may from time to time notify as stations for the reception of drift timber. (3) The State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette. Exempt any class of timber from the provisions of this section and withdraw such exemption. Notice to claimants of timber of those kinds. – 44. (1) Public notice shall, from time to time, as occasion may require, be given by a Forest Officer specially empowered in this behalf of timber collected under the last foregoing section. (2) Such notice shall contain a description of the timber, and will require any person claiming the same to present to such officer, within a period not less than one month from the date on which such notice is given, a written statement of such claim. Procedure on claim preferred to such timber. – 45. (1) When any such statement is presented as aforesaid, the Forest Officer may, after making such enquiry as he thinks fir, either reject the claim after recording his reasons for so doing or deliver the timber to the claimant. (2) If such timber is claimed by more than one person the Forest Officer may either deliver the same to pay any of such persons whom he deems entitled thereto, or may refer the claimants to the Civil Court for its disposal. (3) Any person whose claim has been rejected under this section may within three months from the date of such rejection, institute a suit to recover possession of the timber claimed by him, but no person shall recover any compensation against the Government or against any Forest Officer on account of such rejection, or the detention or removal of any timber or the delivery thereof to any other person under this section. (4) No such timber shall be subjected to process of any Civil Court until it has been delivered, or a suit brought under this section has been decided. Disposal of unclaimed timber. – 46. Where no statement is presented in the manner and within the period prescribed by notice issued under section 44, or where such statement having been so presented and the claim rejected, the claimant omits to institute a suit to recover possession of such timber within the further period mentioned in section 45, the ownership of such timber shall vest in the State Government free from all encumbrances or, when such timber has been delivered to another person under section 45, in such other person free from all encumbrances not created by him. Payments to be made by claimant before timber is delivered to him. – 47. No person shall be entitled to recover possession of any timber collected or delivered as aforesaid until such sum as may be due for salving, collecting, moving, storing, and disposing of the timber has been paid by him the Forest Officer or other person entitled to receive the sum. Power to make rules and prescribe penalties. – 48. (1) The State Government may make rules to regulate the following matters, namely – (a) The salving, collection, and disposal of all timber mentioned in section 43; (b) The use and registration of boats used in salving and collecting timber; (c) the amount to be paid for salving, collecting, moving, storing, and disposing of such timber; and (d) the use and registration of hammers and other implements to be used for marking such timber. (2) The State Government may, by a rule under this section, attach to the breach of any rule under this section any punishment not exceeding imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or fine which may extend to five hundred rupees, or both. CHAPTER VIII Penalties and procedure Seizure of property liable to confiscation. – 49. (1) When there is reason to believe that a forest offence has been committed in respect of any forest produce, such produce together with all tools, boats, carts and cattle used in the commission of such alleged offence, may be seized by any Forest Officer or Police Officer. (2) Every officer seizing any property under this section shall place on such property, or the receptacle, if any, in which it is contained, a mark indicating that the same has been so seized, and shall as soon as may be, make a report of such seizure to the Magistrate having jurisdiction to try the person accused of the offence on account of which the seizure has been made: Provided that when the forest produce with respect to which such offence is believed to have been committed is the property of the Government and the offender is unknown, it shall be sufficient if the officer makes, as soon as may be, a report of the circumstances to his official superior. Power to release property seized under section 49. – 50. Any Forest Officer of a rank not inferior to that of a Forester who or whose subordinate has seized any tools, boats, carts, or cattle under section 49, may release the same on the execution by the owner or the person in charge thereof of a bond for the production of the property so released, if and when so required before the Magistrate having jurisdiction to try the offence on account of which the seizure has been made. Procedure on receipt by Magistrate of report for seizure. – 51. Upon the receipt of any such report, the Magistrate shall take such measures as may be necessary for the trial of the accused and the disposal of the property according to law. Forest produce, tools, etc. when [liable]1 to confiscation. – 52. (1) When any person is convicted of a forest offence, all forest produce which is not the property of the Government and in respect of which such offence has been committed, and all tools, boats. Carts and cattle used in the commission of such offence, shall be liable, by order of the convicting Court to confiscation. (2) Such confiscation may be in addition to any other punishment prescribed for such offence. Disposal on conclusion of trial for forest offence of produce in respect of which it was committed. – 53. When the trial of any forest offence in concluded, any forest produce in respect of which such offence is concluded, any forest produce in respect of which such offence has been committed shall, if it is the property of the Government or has been confiscated, be taken possession of by a Forest Officer specially empowered in this behalf, and, in any other case, shall be disposed of in such manner as the Court may order. Procedure when offender is not known or cannot be found.- 54. (1) When the offender is not known or cannot be found, the Magistrate inquiring inn the offence, if he finds that an offence has been committed, may on application in this behalf, order the property in respect of which the offence has been committed to be confiscated and taken possession of by a Forest Officer specially empowered in this behalf, or to be made over to such Forest Officer or other person as the Magistrate may consider entitled to the same: Provided that no such order shall be made till the expiration of one month form the date of the seizure of such property, or without hearing the person if any, claiming right thereto and the evidence, if any, which he may produce in support of his claim. (2) The Magistrate shall either cause a notice of any application under sub-section (1) to be served upon any person whom he has reason to believe to be interested in the property seized, or publish such notice in any way which he may thinks fit. _____________________________________________________________________ 1 Substituted vide Nagaland Act 9 of 1969. Procedure as to perishable property seized under section 49.- 55. The Magistrate may, notwithstanding anything herein before contained, direct the sale of any property seized under section 49 and subject to speedy and natural decay, and may deal with the proceeds as he might have dealt with such property if it had been sold. Appeal for orders under sections 52, 53 and 54.- 56. Any person claiming to be interested in property seized under section 49 may, within one month from the date of any order passed by a Magistrate under section 52, section 53 or section 54, present on appeal therefrom to the Court to which orders made by such Magistrate are ordinarily appealable, and the order passed on such appeal shall be final. Vesting of confiscated property in the State Government, - 47. When an order for the confiscation of any property has been passed under section 52 or section 54, and the period limited by section 51 for presenting an appeal from such order has elapsed, and no such appeal being presented, or when, on such an appeal ahs been presented, the Appellate Court confirms such order in respect of the whole or a portion of such property, such property or portion, as the case may be shall vest in the State Government free from all encumbrances. Saving of powers to release property seized. – 58. Nothing herein before contained shall be deemed to prevent any Forest Officer or other officer empowered in this behalf by the State Government from directing, at any time, the immediate release of any property seized under section 49 which is not the property of the Government, and the withdrawal of any charge made in respect of such property. Punishment for wrongful seizure. – 59. (1) Any Forest Officer or Police Officer who vexatiously and unnecessarily seizes any property on pretence of seizing property liable to confiscation under this Act, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine which may extend to five hundred rupees, or with both. (2) Any fine so imposed, or any portion thereof shall if the convicting Court so direct, be given as compensation to the person aggrieved by such seizure. Penalty for counterfeiting or defacing marks on trees and timber and for altering boundary marks. – 60. Whoever, with intent to cause damage or injury to the public or to any person, or to cause wrongful gain as defined in the Indian Penal Court. – (a) knowingly counterfeits upon any tree or timber a mark used by Forest Officer to indicate that such tree or timber is the property of the Government or of some person, or that it may lawfully be felled or removed by some person, or (b) unlawfully affixes to any tree or timber a mark used by Forest Officers, or (c) alters, defaces or obliterates any such mark placed on any tree or timber by or under the authority of a Forest Officer, or (d) alters, movers destroys, or defaces any boundary mark of any forest or waste land to which any provisions of this Act apply, shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two year, or with fine, or with both. Power to arrest without warrant. – 61. (1) Any Forest Officer or Police Officer may without orders from a Magistrate and without a warrant, arrest any person reasonably suspected of having been concerned in an forest offence punishable with imprisonment for one month or upwards, if such person refuses to give his name and residence or gives a name or residence which there is reason to believe to be false, or if there is reason to believe that he will abscond. (2) Every officer making an arrest under this section shall, without unnecessary delay, take or send the person arrested before a Magistrate having jurisdiction in the case or to the officer in charge of the nearest police station. (3) Any Forest Officer or Police Officer who vexatiously, or maliciously arrests any person on the pretence that he is suspected of having been concerned in any forest offence or otherwise as provided by section 61(1) of this Act shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to six months, or with fine which may extend to five hundred rupees, or with both. (4) No Forest Officer or Police Officer shall detain in custody a person arrested under sub-section (1) of this section for a longer period that under all the circumstances of the case is reasonable; and such period shall not exceed twenty four hours exclusive of the time necessary for the journey from the place of arrest to the Magistrate’s Court having jurisdiction in the case. Power to prevent commission of offence. – 62. It shall be the duty of every Forest Officer and Police Officer to prevent, and any such officer may interfere for the purpose of preventing, the commission of any forest offence. Power to compound offences. – 63. (1) The State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette, empower a Forest Officer by name, or as holding in office, - (a) to accept from any person against whom a reasonable suspicion exists that he has committed any forest offence, other than an offence specified in section 59, or section 60, a sum of money by way of compensation for the offence which such person is suspected to have committed, and (b) when any property has been seized as liable to confiscation, to release the same on payment of the value thereof as estimated by such officer. (2) On the payment of such sum of money, or such value, or both, as the case may be, to such officer, the suspected person, if in custody, shall be discharged, the property, if any, seized shall be released and not further proceedings shall be taken against such person or property. (3) No Forest Officer shall be empowered under this section unless he is a Forest Officer of a rank not inferior to that of a Forest Ranger, and is in receipt of a monthly salary amounting to at least two hundred fifty and the sum of money accepted as compensation under sub-section (1) clause (a), shall in no case exceed the sum of fifty rupees. Compensation for damage caused by commission of offences. – 64. (1) When any person is convicted of felling, cutting, girdling, marking, loping or tapping trees, or of injuring them by fire or otherwise, in contravention of this Act or of any rule thereunder, the convicting Court may, in addition to any other punishment which it may award, order that person to pay to the State Government such compensation, not exceeding twenty rupees for each tree with respect to which the offence was committed, as it may deem just. (2) If the person convicted of the offence committed was the agent or servant of another person, the convicting Court may, of after hearing that other person, it is satisfied that the commission of the offence was a consequence of his instigation, or of any neglect or default on his part, order him, instead of the person who committed the offence, to pay the compensation referred to in sub-section (1). (3) An appeal from any order under sub-section (1) or sub-section (2) shall lie to the Court to which orders made by the convicting Court are ordinarily appealable and the order passed on such appeal shall be final. Forfeiture of leases. – 65. When the holder of any lease, license or contract whatsoever granted or continued by, or on behalf of the Government for any of the purposes of this Act commits an offence against this Act or any rule thereunder, or When any such offence is committed by any agent or servant of the holder of any such lease, license or contract, and the State Government is satisfied that the commission of the offence was a consequence of the instigation of such holder or of any neglect or default on his part, the State Government may, by order in writing, declare the lease, license or contract to the forfeited in whole or in part with effect on and from a date to be specified in the order not being prior to the date of the commission of the offence. CHAPTER IX CATTLE TRESPASS Cattle trespass Act 1871 to apply. – 66. Cattle trespassing in a reserved forest or in a village forest shall be deemed to be cattle doing damage to public plantation within the meaning of section 11 of the Cattle Trespass Act, 1871, and may be seized and impounded as such by any Forest Officer or Police Officer.