GEETHAKUMARI Vs. CHIEF SECRETARY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Both the Original Petitions arise from a proceeding initiated before the Forest Tribunal, by one Sethumadhavan Nair; now expired. The present dispute is between the legal heirs of Sethumadhavan Nair and the legal heirs of his assignee. O.P (F.T) No. 6 of 2019 is against rejection of an application for amendment, filed by the legal heirs of Sethumadhavan Nair, for altering the extent of the property which was the subject matter of O.A.No.63 of 1975, later renumbered as O.A.No.59/2000. The learned Tribunal found that the order declaring the subject lands to be exempted under Sec. 3 (2) (3) of the Kerala Private Forest (Vesting and Assignment) Act, 1971 (for brevity, the Act of 1971) was affirmed in an appeal before this Court and the principle of merger, restrains the Tribunal from entertaining a review of its judgment in the O.A. The Tribunal, according to us, rightly found that when the order of the Tribunal has merged with the order in the MFA, there can be no review sought for before the Tribunal. Reliance was also placed on the Full Bench decision of this Court in Thomas v. Kunjamma 2005 (4) KLT 286. O.P. (FT)No.6/2019, hence, has to be rejected, leaving open the remedy if any, before the Division Bench of the High Court, which disposed of MFA No.166/2004.

(2.) O.P.(FT) No.10/2019 is filed against Ext.P14 order of the Tribunal which rejected the application filed by the legal heirs of Sethumadhavan Nair to review Ext.P8 order.

(3.) We have heard the learned Senior Counsel Sri. Sethumadhavan for the petitioners, Sri. Dinesh Mathew Murikkan for the party respondents and Sri. Nagaraj Narayanan, learned Special Government Pleader (Forests) appearing for the State.