1. Is the Munnar Special Tribunal competent to adjudicate disputes with respect to ownership, possession, use or any rights whatsoever even between private individuals concerning the land in Munnar area?

2. These original petitions have been filed under Article 227 of the Constitution of India challenging the finding rendered by the Munnar Special Tribunal ('the Tribunal' for short) on maintainability. The petitioners in the two original petitions are brothers who were allotted 3.95 acres and 5 acres respectively under a Partition Deed (Document No.1346/1986) executed in their family. Their father obtained a larger extent of 27.45 acres of land in Pallivasal Village of Devikulam Taluk on assignment under the Cardamom Rules, 1935 (Travancore). The petitioners had filed two separate suits in O.S.Nos.27/2004 and 25/2004 on the file of the court of the Subordinate Judge of Thodupuzha. The suits though initially one for injunction against trespass were later amended as one for declaration of title and recovery of possession. The plea in the suits is that about 35 cents of land belonging to the family of the petitioners have been encroached upon for the purpose of constructing a