GOVINDAN THIRUMULPAD Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The validity of S.8C (3) of the Kerala Private Forests (Vesting and Assignment) Act 25 of 1971 as amended by Amendment Act 36 of 1986 is under challenge in this Original Petition. S.8C (3) of the Act enables the State Government to apply for review of any judgment or order passed by the High Court in any proceeding relating to a private forest, en the Government being satisfied of certain conditions. The State Government filed petitions seeking review of the judgments of this Court in O.P. 3992 of 1973, O.P. 6353/82 and C.R.P. 2271 of 1982. The petitioner is one of the many beneficiaries of those judgments. Naturally therefore, he would like to avoid review of the judgments. In addition to objecting to the review on merits, the petitioner challenges the vires of the statutory provisions which enable the Government to apply for review judgments of this Court. We beard the review petitions alongwith this original petition. We felt it necessary that we should deal with the Constitutional validity of the enabling statute before we venture into an examination of the merits of the review petitions.

(2.) The facts, to the extent to which they are necessary to consider the contentions which the petitioner raises, are the following:

(3.) The petitioner is a member of Nilambur Kovilakam, which is an erstwhile Malabar Jenmi family. The Kovilakam was the owner of large extent of forest lands of over 32,000 acres, in addition to vast areas of agricultural lands. All assets of the joint family except the forest lands were partitioned among its members pursuant to an agreement among them and on the basis of an award of a Committee of arbitrators which was accepted and registered on 12-9-1951. An interim management committee was constituted by agreement dated 17-10-1948 to sell the forest lands, realise and distribute the proceeds among members and to manage the forests till that time. Since the interim management committee could not sell the whole of the private forests as was expected of it, some of the members of the Kovilakam filed a Suit, O.S.22 of 1961 in the Subordinate Judge's Court, Kozhikode. Two Joint Receivers were appointed by the Sub Court to manage the suit property and to sell the same if possible. They were authorised to act on behalf of all the members of the Kovilakam by orders of the Sub Court in I.A. No. 821 of 196S dated 1-7-1965. A preliminary decree for partition was passed an 24-9-196S. I.A. 701 of 1965 was filed for a final decree ia terms thereof.