(1) The following, that is to say:—
(i) all public roads, streets, lanes and paths, the bridges, ditches, dykes and fences on or beside the same;
(ii) the bed of the sea and of harbours and creeks below high water-mark, the beds and banks of rivers, streams, irrigation and drainage channels;
(iii) all canals, tanks, lakes, back-waters and water-courses;
(iv) all land wherever situated, save in so far as the same are the property of—
(a) jenmis or holders of Inams; or
(b) holders of land in anyway subject to the payment of land revenue to the Government; or
(c) any other registered holder of land in proprietary right; or
(d) any person holding land under grant from the Government otherwise than by way of lease or licence; or * Received the assent of the President on 24th November, 1960 and published in the Gazette Extraordinary dated 30th November, 1960.
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(e) any person claiming through or holding under any of the persons referred to in clause (a), (b), (c), or (d), are, and are hereby declared to be, Government lands except as may be otherwise provided by any law for the time being in force, subject to all rights of way and other public rights and to the natural and easement rights of other land owners and to all customary rights legally subsisting.
Explanation I.—Lands registered in the name of a person but subsequently abandoned or relinquished and all lands held by right of escheat, purchase, resumption, reversion or acquisition under the Land Acquisition Act for the time being in force are Government lands within the meaning of this sub-section.
Explanation II.—In this sub-section, the expression "high-water mark" means the highest point reached by the ordinary spring-tide at any season of the year.
(2) In this Act, unless the context otherwise requires,—
(a) "assignment" includes a transfer of land by way of lease and a grant of licence for the use of land;
(b) "assignee" includes his heirs;
(c) "prescribed" means prescribed by rules made under this Act.