In a significant decision rendered today, a Division Bench of the High Court of Kerala comprising Ag. Chief Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice P.R. Ramachandra Menon, has rejected the challenge raised by the petitioners in W.P. (C) 26691/2010 and connected cases to the Kerala Forest (Vesting and Management of Ecologically Fragile Lands) Act, 2003 as also Rule 17 to 20 of the 2007 Rules and upheld the validity of the said enactment and the notification issued by the Government of Kerala taking over 45,000 hectares of land and vesting the same with the State.
Though the High Court upheld the constitutional validity of the EFL Act, it permitted the petitioners who had challenged the notification issued by the Government under Ordinance Nos. 6/2000, 8/2000, 3/2001 and 16/2001 to submit applications before the EFL Custodian under Section 19 of the EFL Act for reviewing the said notification which are to be decided by the Custodian within 3 months of date of filing the applications for review along with copy of the judgment of the High Court of Kerala.
As regards the petitioners who have challenged the notifications issued under Section 3 of the EFL Act, the High Court of Kerala through its judgment authored by Ag. Chief Justice Ashok Bhushan, they were granted 1 month' time to submit application under Section 10 (1) and 10A of the EFL Act, as the case may be, to raise the same before the Tribunal which was directed to decide the same within a period of 6 months.
The arguments on behalf of the petitioners were led by Senior Advocate C.U. Singh among others, while Advocate K.V. Viswanathan and Special Government Pleader (Forest) M.P. Madhavankutty appeared for the State of Kerala.
