1. Ext.P16 order passed by the Custodian of Vested Forest, Palakkad, as also Ext.P17 notification issued under the Kerala Forest (Vesting and Management of Ecologically Fragile Lands) Act, 2003 are impugned in this writ petition preferred by the petitioners who are members of the Kookil Tharwad of Thalassery in the State of Kerala.

2. The brief facts necessary for the disposal of this writ petition are as follows:

The Petitioners are members of the Kookil tharwad, which owned vast extents of forest land in Ernad Taluk in Malappuram District. The properties of the tharwad were partitioned in O.S.No.69/1949 before the Sub Court, Thalassery. A final decree was passed in I.A.No.734 in the said suit. As per the final decree, the forest land owned by the tharwad was partitioned equally and each member of the tharwad stood entitled to get 57.5 acres of land. The tharwad had leased out 1630 acres of land to the Pullengode Rubber and Produce Company Limited as per a lease agreement dated 1.5.1910. The land that was allotted to the several members of the tharwad, pursuant to the final decree in the partition suit, formed part of the land that was demised to the Pullengode Rubber and