 bill no ix of 2012 the indian forest (amendment) bill, 2012 a billfurther to amend the indian forest act, 1927be it enacted by parliament in the sixty-third year of the republic of india as follows:—1 (1) this act may be called the indian forest (amendment) act, 2012short title and commencement(2) it shall come into force on such date as the central government may, by notification in the official gazette, appoint2  in sub-section (3) of section 68 of the indian forest act, 1927,—5amendment of section 68 of act 16 of 1927(a) the words "and is in receipt of a monthly salary amounting to at least onehundred rupees" shall be omitted;(b) for the words "fifty rupees", the words "ten thousand rupees" shall besubstituted;(c) after sub-section (3), the following shall be inserted, namely:—'(4) in scheduled areas, the forest-officer shall, before exercising the powers vested under this section, obtain and record the views of the gram sabha concernedexplanation - in this sub-section, the expressions,—5(a) "gram sabha" means a body consisting of persons registered in the electoral rolls relating to a village comprised within the area of panchayat at the village level;10(b) "scheduled areas" means the areas to which the provisions of clause (1) of article 244 and the fifth schedule to the constitution apply' statement of objects and reasonsthe indian forest act, 1927 (16 of 1927) has been enacted to consolidate the law relating to forests, the transit of forest-produce and the duty leviable on timber and other forest-produce2 section 68 of the indian forest act, 1927 contains provisions for compounding of offences  it inter alia, —(a) confers power upon a forest officer, appointed by the state government, 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 62 relating to punishment for wrongful seizure or section  63 relating to penalty for counterfeiting or defacing marks on trees and timber and for altering boundary marks) a  sum of money by way of compensation for the offence which such person is suspected to have committed;(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 sub-section (2) of the aforesaid section 68 further provides that the suspected  person, if  in custody, shall,  on  the payment of such sum of money, or such value, or both, as the case may  be, be discharged on  the payment of such sum of money, or such value, or both, as the  case may  be, and the property,  if any, seized shall be released, and  no further proceedings shall  be  taken  against  such person or property3 sub-section (3) of aforesaid section 68 of the indian forest act, 1927 provides that, —(i) a  forest-officer referred to above for the purpose of compounding of offence should not be inferior  to that of a ranger and is in receipt of a monthly salary amounting to at least one hundred rupees,  and(ii) the  sum of  money accepted as compensation under clause (a) of subsection (1) shall in no case exceed the sum of fifty rupees 4 the monthly salary limit of a forest officer specified in sub-paragraph (i) of the preceding paragraph empowered to compound aforesaid offences has become redundant and it is therefore proposed to omit  salary limit from aforesaid sub-section (3)5 the  sum not exceeding rupees fifty accepted as compensation as mentioned in paragraph (ii) of the preceding paragraph fixed in 1927 is very less  it is also proposed to revise the said limit from fifty rupees to ten thousand rupees6 it is also proposed to insert a new sub-section (4) in section 68 of the indian forest act, 1927 so as to make it mandatory for the forest-officer, to obtain and record the views of gram sabha before compounding the offence so as to ensure the transparency in compounding of the offences and participation of the people at gram sabha levelnew delhi;jayanthi natarajanthe 15th  february, 2012 annexure extract from the indian forest act, 1927(16 of 1927)    68 (1)     power to compound offences(3) a forest-officer shall not be empowered under this section unless he is a forestofficer of a rank not inferior to that of a ranger and is in receipt of a monthly salary amounting to at least one hundred rupees, and the sum of money accepted as compensation under clause (a) of sub-section (1) shall in no case exceed the sum of fifty rupees|     |     |     |     |    ||------|------|------|------|-----| rajya   sabha———— a billfurther to amend the indian forest act, 1927————(shrimati jayanthi natarajan, minsiter of state (independent charge)in the ministry of environment and forests)gmgipmrnd—4642rs(s3)—21-03-2012