A.M. Babu, J.

1. We admit the appeal. The learned special government pleader has taken notice for the respondents.

2. A property which measures 0.8215 hectare was notified as an ecologically fragile land. The notification was issued under Sec.3 (2) of the Kerala Forest (Vesting and Management of Ecologically Fragile Lands) Act (for short 'the Act'). The appellants claiming themselves to be the owners of the said property filed an original application before the tribunal constituted under the Act. The application was numbered O.A 9/2017. The same was accompanied by an interlocutory application. The said application was numbered I.A 13/2017. It was filed under Sec.5 of the Limitation Act to condone the delay in filing the original application.

3. The appellants contended as under in I.A 13/2017. The notification under Sec.3 (2) of the Act was issued on 5.9.2012. No notice was given to them when their property was notified as an ecologically fragile land. They came to know about the notification only on 28.2.2017. Therefore there happened to be a delay of 1498 days in filing the original application.

4. The respondents opposed I.A 13/2017. They disputed that the appellants came to be aware of the notification only on 28.2.2017. It was also contended that a criminal case was registered against the appellants as OR 1/2012 for having felled trees from the notified property. Therefore, according to the respondents, the appellants were aware of the notification in 2012 itself.

5. No evidence was adduced in the interlocutory application. The tribunal dismissed the said application holding that the delay of 1498 days in filing the original application was not explained by evidence. Dismissal of I.A 13/2017 was followed by the dismissal of the original application as time barred.

6. We heard Sri. P. Babu Kumar and Sri. Nagaraj Narayanan, the learned counsel for the appellants and the learned special government pleader for forest cases respectively.

7. It seems everybody including the tribunal was under an impression that an application under Sec.10 of the Act should be filed within a specified time from the date of issuance of the notification under Sec.3 (2) of the Act. But the Act does not prescribe any period of limitation within which shall be filed an application under Sec.10. However, rule 3 (1) of the Kerala Forest (Vesting and Management of Ecologically Fragile Lands) Tribunal Rules (for short 'the Tribunal Rules') prescribes a period of limitation. We extract below rule 3(1) and its proviso.

Every application under section 10 shall be made in “Form A” and shall be accompanied by a fee of five hundred rupees with such number of copies of the application and the documents as are necessary to be served on the respondents, within 3 months from the date of decision of the custodian or within 6 months from the date of communication of compensation under section 8, as the case may be, submitted before the tribunal.

Provided that, in the case of petitions already disposed of by the custodian, the application shall be submitted within three months from the date of notification of these Rules.

8. A notification could be issued under the Act either under Sec.3 (2) or under Sec.4 (1). What rule 3 (1) provides is that an application under Sec.10 shall be filed within three months from the date of decision of the custodian in cases where notification was issued under Sec.3(2). It shall be filed within six months from the date of communication of fixing of compensation under Sec.8 if the notification was one issued under Sec.4 (1) of the Act. In the instant case we are only concerned with the notification under Sec.3(2) of the Act. The decision referred to in rule 3 (1) of the Tribunal Rules is not the decision of the custodian to issue notification under Sec.3(2). That is clear from the proviso to rule 3(1). The proviso states that in the case of petitions already disposed of by the custodian, the application shall be submitted within three m