1. These are appeals under S.8A of the Kerala Private Forests (Vesting and Assignment) Act, 1971 (hereinafter called the'Vesting Act'). The Act came into force on 10-5-1971. Its object was to provide for the vesting of private forests in the State Government, and for assignment thereof to agriculturists and agricultural labourers for cultivation, as in the opinion of the legislature, all private forests in Kerala were agricultural lands. S.2(f) defined 'private forest'. S.3 provided for the vesting of the ownership and possession of all such forests in the Government, and for the extinguishment of rights, title and interests of owners and other persons. Under S.4, vested private' forests were to be deemed to be reserve forests so long as they remained vested. S.5 provided for summary eviction of persons found to be in unauthorised occupation of the vested areas. S.6 provided for demarcation of the boundaries, and S.7 for the constitution of Tribunals for the purpose of the Act. Disputes as to whether any land was a private forest or not, or whether any private forest had vested in the Government or not, had to be decided by such Tribunals; and S.8A provided for appeals to the High Court from such decisions. S.9 declared that no compensation was payable for the vesting or the extinguishment of the rights involved. S.10 required the Government to "reserve" part of the vested forests, and to assign or lease out the remaining part to agriculturists, agricultural labourers, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, unemployed young persons and others interested in taking up agriculture as means of their livelihood. Under S.11 the assignment was to be completed within two years. S.12 to 14 dealt with the powers of the Tribunal and the Custodian, bar of jurisdiction of civil courts, and indemnity. S.15 contemplated the constitution of an "Agriculturists' Welfare Fund". S.16 and 17 conferred power on the Government to remove difficulties and to make rules. S.18 repealed the Madras Preservation of Private Forests Act, 1949 and some other enactments/ Ordinances. When the validity of the Act was questioned in State of Kerala v. Gwaliyor Rayon (AIR 1973 SC. 2734) the Supreme Court understood the legislative measure as a "scheme of agrarian reform" designed to take over agricultural lands comprised in private forests, and for the settlement of poorer classes of the rural population on those lands, for promotion of agriculture.

2. To appreciate the nature of the contentions raised in these appeals, it is also necessary to briefly refer to the Kerala Land Reforms Act and the Madras Preservation of Private Forests Act. Though most of the provisions of the Land Reforms Act were brought into force from 1-4-1964, the ceiling provisions were given effect to only from 1-1-1970. Chapter III of the Act dealt with fixation of ceiling and disposal of excess lands. The Chapter provided for the fixation of a ceiling on the extent of land a person or family could hold as on 1-1-1970, for take-over of the excess on payment of compensation and for their distribution among kudikidappukars, landless agricultural labourers and small-holders. S.81 of the Act exempted private forests from the ceiling provisions; and in this view, the object of the Vesting Act was to get at the lands comprised in such forests also for distribution, as part of agrarian reform. The basic difference between the two schemes was that while compensation was payable for excess lands taken over under the Land Reforms Act, no compensation at all was payable for the forest lands taken over under the Vesting Act. Both the enactments were directed at relieving the pressure on land which was, and is, a notorious feature of this over-crowded State.

3. As for the Madras Preservation of Private Forests Act, 1949 ("M.P.P.F. Act"), its object was to prevent indiscriminate destruction of private forests and interference with customary and prescriptive rights therein, pending further legisla