1. The order before us is quite unsatisfactory and therefore we are constrained to interfere with it. It is the order of the Forest Tribunal, Calicut, on an application under S.8 of the Kerala Private Forests (Vesting and Assignment) Act, 1971 to declare 22.50 acres of land as outside the purview of Act 26 of 1971. There is no dispute with regard to 7 acres out of this. That is land cultivated and developed. The dispute concerns 15 1/2 acres, which according to the State was forest land and continued to be so on 10th May 1971. Without examining any witness and merely by reference to revenue receipts, Exts. P-3 to P-22, and documents Exts P-1, P-2 and P-23, the Forest Tribunal, Calicut has accepted the case of the petitioners before it

2. The mere fact that a person pays tax for a land does not prove his title to the land It may be taken as evidence of title along with such other material as is relevant in the matter of proof of title. The learned Tribunal seems to think that payment of tax for the disputed land by the claimants and acceptance of such tax by the revenue officials after 10th May 1971 would be a sufficient answer to the contention of the State. This idea is