1. The petitioners are the father and sons, who are the absolute owners in possession of 0.6601 Hectares of land comprised in Block No.34, Re - Survey Nos.77/36, 80/17, 80/19, 80/3 and 81/13 of Pudussery Central Village in Palakkad District. The said properties were originally held by one Gopakumar and one V.K Jayasree.

2. In the year 2009, the predecessors in interest of the petitioners have approached the 1st respondent, seeking permission for conversion of the land from paddy land to garden land, invoking the powers of the 1st respondent under Clause 6(2) of Kerala Land Utilisation Order. The said application culminated in Ext.P4 order dated 18/02/2009, in which it was found that the said properties have not been cultivated for the past 50 years, and the same was used for non - agricultural purposes. However, a positive order was not passed, and instead, the applicants were directed to confirm whether the land would fall under the purview of Act 28/2008, the Kerala Conservation of Paddy Land and Wetland Act, 2008 (hereinafter referred to as the 'Paddy Land Act'), from the competent authorities. Subsequently, as the properties were already included in the Data Bank prepared under