Insertion of new section

After section 84 of the principal Act, the following section shall be inserted, namely:— "84-A. Validity of settlements etc. of convenanting State.—For the removal of doubts, it is hereby declared that every settlement or arrangement made before the 20th August, 1954, under the authority of the Government of any covenanting State forming part of the territories referred to in sub-section (2A) of section 1, with respect to any claims or rights of any persons admitted by the Government of that State to be in existence in any of the forests or waste lands which were the property of that Government or over which that Government had proprietary rights or to the whole or part of the forest produce of which that Government was entitled, shall be deemed to be a settlement of claims and rights made under this Act and all such claims and rights shall be deemed to be claims and rights duly inquired into and admitted for the purposes of this Act and shall be deemed always to have been so inquired and admitted for the purposes of the Patiala Forest Act, 1999 B.K., and it shall not be, and shall be deemed never to have been, necessary to determine the rights of persons in accordance with chapters II and IV, as the case may be, for declaring any forest or waste land to be a reserved or protected forest or a first or a second class forest".