P.A. NADIRSHA Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Captioned writ petitions are materially connected; filed, raising questions under the provisions of the Kerala Preservation of Trees Act 1986 and Kerala Promotion of Tree Growth in Non Forest Areas Act, 2005, hereinafter called, Kpt Act 1986 and 'Act, 2005'; and challenging the order of refusal to cut and remove the entire trees standing in the property of the petitioners in the first among the writ petitions as per sec. 6 of the Act, 2005; and non consideration of the applications submitted by the petitioners in the other connected writ petition properly and legally. Therefore, I heard them together and proposed to pass this common judgment.

(2.) In W.P." No.2543 of 2021, the following are the contentions raised by the petitioners:

(3.) According to the petitioners, after the coming into force of the Kerala Private Forest (Vesting and Assignment) Act, 1971, hereinafter called, 'Act, 1971', an extent of 150 acres of land became vested in the Government. Thereafter, as per proceedings dtd. 20/04/1985 in O.A.No.412/81, the Forest Tribunal, Palakkad exempted an extent of 107 Acres of land, on finding that the owners are entitled to exemption under Sec.3(3) of the Act 1971. Even though the said order was challenged by the Government before this Court by filing MFA No:61/86, the order was substantially affirmed by this Court as per a judgement dtd. 18/3/1992, evident from Exhibit P3; and thus, by virtue of the aforesaid judgement, the petitioners' predecessors obtained physical possession of the entire extent of 107 acres of land in April 1993.