The claim made by the party respondents that 80 Acres of forest is exempted from vesting in the State under Section 3(3) of the Kerala Private Forests (Vesting and Assignment) Act, 1971 (hereinafter referred to as 'Act' for short) has given rise to this litigation. By the judgment under appeal, the learned Single Judge upheld the claim and directed its demarcation and return to the respondents, in pursuance to Ext.P1 order passed by the Custodian of Vested Forests, in the purported exercise of his powers under Section 3(3) of the Act. It is this judgment which is challenged before us.

2. The facts of the case are that, Pullangode Rubber and Produce Company Limited (hereinafter referred to as 'Company' for short), had in its possession about 4000 acres of land of which more than 2000 acres was developed into plantation. According to the party respondents, the total area included 1630 acres of land, leased out by their predecessor to the Company as early as on 01.05.1910. The area that was developed by the lessee Company included portions of the leasehold area also. They say that, O.S. No.69 of 1949 was filed before the Sub Court, Thalassery, for partition of the aforesaid property and that in I.A. No.734/1956 final decree was passed on 13.07.1966 allotting 57.5 acres to each of the sharers from the family.

3. On implementation of the Act, private forests, including portions of the area leased out by the predecessor of the party respondents, got vested in the State under Section 3 of the Act with effect from 10.05.1971. Thereupon, the Company, being the lessee, in its capacity as owner as defined in the Act, filed O.A. No.1288/1974 before the Forest Tribunal, Palakkad, which was transferred to the Forest Tribunal, Manjeri, which renumbered it as O.A. No.86/1976. In that O.A. the Company claimed that 1502.53 acres of land comprised in several survey numbers in Eranad Taluk are not private forests and are exempted from vesting under the Act. The Forest Tribunal dismissed the application by its order dated 09.06.1978. The Company challenged the order of the Tribunal before this Court in M.F.A No.426/1978. A Full Bench of this Court, in its common judgment dated 22.03.1984, exempted 80 acres of land towards 'wind-belt' and as the source of firewood for smokehouses. Both sides filed appeals before the Supreme Court and the appeals were disposed of by judgment in State of Kerala v Pullangode Rubber & Produce Co. Ltd. (1999(3) KLT 334 (SC)) where the area exempted was reduced to 28.40 acres of land for ancillary purposes.

4. It is seen that in the proceedings before the Apex Court, on behalf of the respondents, an attempt was made to get themselves impleaded, but, however, the application was rejected on the ground that the claim raised had no relation to the issues in the appeals. The order further shows that the applicants were given the liberty to adopt such proceedings in law, as are available to them against both the State and the Company.

5. Thus the proceedings instituted by the Company, in its capacity as owner, attained finality with the judgment of the Apex Court. In the meanwhile, in 1974, applications were to be made by the party respondents, and in some cases by their predecessors, claiming exemption of forest land under Section 3(3) of the Act, which provided for exemption from vesting of land intended for personal cultivation. On these applications, the Custodian of Vested Forests passed Ext.P1 order dated 12.02.1976, whereby a total extent of 80 acres of land was ordered to be exempted from vesting. It was also ordered that the parties will respectively identify the exact area they want to return and that these areas will be surveyed and demarcated at their respective costs. Subsequently, one of the petitioners in Ext.P1 approached this Court by filing O.P. No.5204/1981 and seeking a direction to the Custodian of Vested Forests to pass orders as contemplated under Rule 6 of the Kerala Private Forests (Exemption fr