23. No person shall be deemed to have committed an offence in respect of clearing or cutting or setting fire to, or breaking up the soil of, any chena in any case in which the forest in respect of which the prosecution has been instituted has not been declared under the Land Settlement Ordinance or any enactment repealed by Ordinance No. 20 of 1931 to be the property of the Crown, if-
| (a) the complainant fails to prove that the trees in the said forest are of more than twenty years growth, and |
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| (b) the accused satisfies the court that he claims the said forest by inheritance or upon deed based upon inheritance and that he or his predecessors in title have on at least two occasions cultivated it according to the customary cycle of cultivation after intervals of several years for similar lands in the same locality. |
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Sri Lanka Consolidated Acts