Section 4 in Revenue Standing Orders Relating to Forest Settlement
4.
The ordinary procedure of forest settlement is as follows:-Firstly, selection and preliminary demarcation of the proposed block, and the preparation of a Plan and draft notification of boundaries by the District Forest Officer, secondly, inspection, perambulation, correction of map and settlement, by the Forest Settlement Officer; and thirdly, the preparation of the register of claims by the Forest Settlement Officer, the issue of the corrected map and final notification by the Forest Settlement Officer and the District Forest Officer, and the final demarcation by the District Forest Officer. The preliminary demarcation need not necessarily be of so permanent a character as the final demarcation, but it should be a definite and continuous line sufficient to show the Forest Settlement Officer and the ryots concerned where it runs. The inspection should be such as may be necessary to give the Forest Settlement Officer a general idea of the nature of the blocks, which he is about to settle, and to elucidate any points of doubt or dispute in regard to particular claims. The perambulation of the boundary should be done map in hand, so that the Forest Settlement Officer may become acquainted with the boundaries be able to settle satisfactorily the disputed points upon them, and he will mark upon the maps the places at which, and the extent to which correction or revision is necessary, or has been made. The attendance of the ryots upon these occasions should be encouraged, and actual perambulation should be made in all cases, except in very mountainous localities where it would be difficult to visit all the boundary, and in places where such perambulation is unnecessary owing to the fact that the boundary line follows well-defined natural features. The Forest Settlement Officer's camp should be pitched and settlement should be conducted and completed in the immediate neighbourhood of the block concerned, and, so far as possible, the settlement of the whole block should be completed at one time.The Forest Settlement Officer is responsible for seeing that every claim which he admits is absolutely clear aid definite. His right and duty to do this last for the whole of the time during which he is in charge of the settlement, i.e., for all the time between the issue of the notification under section and the issue of the notification under section 16 of the Forest Act as during the whole of this period, he is legally in-charge of the settlement and is both able and responsible for carrying it out completely and thoroughly.It will, of course, be the duty of the District Forest Officer, to assist the Forest Settlement Officer in the matter by checking all claims before or at admission to ensure that they are clear and definite, and by at once bringing to his notice, any claim which is not so.After the notification under section 16 is issued, the Forest Settlement Officer is functus officio and as he has then no power to touch the settlement, whatever is to do or has to be done after that, in order to make his decision clear, must be done either by the Local Forest or Revenue Officers, or through the Civil Courts as may be most convenient or necessary.
