STATE Vs. KODAKKAT POCKER

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appeal is filed against the order of the Forest Tribunal, Palghat in OA Nos. 889 and 1102 of 1974. The applications were allowed by the Forest Tribunal holding that the entire extent shown in the respective Original Applications are not private forest but cashew plantation coming within the exclusion under Act 26 of 1971.

(2.) The parties will be referred to in this judgment by their ranking before the Tribunal.

(3.) The applicants in OA Nos. 889 of 1974 and 896 of 1974 are brothers. The applicant in OA 1102 of 1974 is the wife of the applicant in OA 889 of 1974. The lands comprised in the Original Applications lie contiguous. The extent of the lands in the Original Applications are 10 acres, 14.40 acres and 8 acres respectively. The entire extent of the land was purchased by the mother of the applicants in OA No. 889 and 896 of 1974 on kanom rights. Their case is that after they obtained rights over the properties they planted cashew trees in almost the entire extent of the property and in small portions they have raised fugitive cultivation.