Section 2 in Revenue Standing Orders Relating to Forest Settlement
2.
Briefly, it is as follows:-The land to be reserved having been selected and report on the fact having been made through the Chief Conservator of Forests to Government, the Government of Tamil Nadu notify under section 4 of the Forest Act, that it is proposed to constitute this land a reserved forest, and appoint a Forest Settlement Officer to inquire into and settle all claims which may be laid either by the public or by individuals in or over the land or its produce. This notification is published in the Tamil Nadu Government Gazette and the District Gazette, and from that time until the settlement is complete, the jurisdiction of all other Courts over the land save by way of appeal from the Forest Settlement Officer, is barred, and save by special grant under section 7, no fresh rights can accrue. Claims to or over the land or its produce have then to be put in by claimant within three months and notices to this effect have to be served on every owner or occupier of land included in or adjoining the land concerned. The claims put in are dealt with by the Forest Settlement Officer, his decisions are accepted or appealed against, as the case may be, reports made to Government through the Chief Conservator of Forests that the settlement has been made such of the claims being admit a notification under section 16 issued, and reserved is complete.The distinction that is drawn in section 10 of the Act between claims to rights of way, water, pasture, and forest produce, and claims to other rights in or over the land, will be noticed. The appeal in the former case lies to the Collector the appeal time being sixty days, and in the later case the District Judge, the appeal time being thirty days. In the case of easements, the order of the Forest Settlement Officer must be specially accurate and full; in the case of land, the land must either be acquired or excluded and for the purposes of acquisition, the Forest Settlement Officer as the powers of a Collector under the Land Acquisition Act.
