1. The revision petitioner has been directed by the Taluk Land Board to surrender excess land determined as 41.80 acres The only controversy surviving for consideration now is whether the exemption claimed by the revision petitioner for an area of 40 acres said to have been converted from private forest into rubber plantation is to be allowed. The Taluk Land Board rejected the claim for exemption under S.81 (1) (e) of Kerala Act 1 of 1964 (for short "the Act") on the ground that the conversion into rubber plantation was made after 1-1-1970. Though the Taluk Land Board thought that the clear-felling of the private forest might have been over by 1965, it did not choose to grant the exemption under S.81 (1) (d) of the Act.

2. Before going into this controversy, I shall refer to S.87 of the Kerala Act I of 1964. S.87 states that persons acquiring land after 1-1-1970 (the date notified under S.83) will have to account for the same and surrender land held in excess of the ceiling area, if any. The explanation to the section as it originally stood stated that where any land is exempted by or under S 81 and such exemption is in force on 1-1-1970, the notified date, such land sha