Judgment :-

Chelameswar, J.

1. These appeals are placed before us pursuant to the Order dated 8th December, 2004 of a Division Bench of this Court which opined that the points involved in these and certain other appeals “need to be decided by a three Judge Bench.”

2. These appeals arise out of a common judgment rendered in a number of writ petitions by a full Bench of the Kerala High Court dated 2nd August, 1999 by which all the writ petitions were dismissed.

3. The said full Bench of the Kerala High Court was called upon to examine the question (on a reference by another Division Bench) - whether the owners of jenmom lands in the Malabar area [Parts of Kerala popularly known as Malabar area which earlier formed part of the erstwhile Madras province in the British India] are the proprietors of the soil and the minerals underneath the soil - and answered the said question in the negative:

4. To illustrate the background in which such question arises, we may quote the facts of one of the writ petitions considered by the full Bench as narrated by the full Bench.

“2. According to the petitioner in this case, her husband obtained jenmon assignment of 2 Acres of granite rocks situated