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 a1ongwith 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 cont