lands involved in the writ petition is a vested forest by virtue of notification published as envisaged under Act, 1971. It is further contended that the appellants encroached the forest land in VFC item No.124B, Onthumala Malavaram, which is notified vide No.D-1383/77 dated 10.10.1977, evident from Annexure R6(a). It was submitted that, any question as to whether the land is a private forest or not is to be considered under section 8 of Act, 1971 by the Forest Tribunal which is the statutory remedy available to the appellants and therefore, the writ petition is not maintainable under law. It was further submitted that as per section 4 of Act, 1971, all private forests vested in the Government under sub-section (1) of section 3 shall, so long as they remain vested in the Government, be deemed to be reserved forest constituted under Kerala Forest Act, 1961 and provisions of that Act shall so far as may be, apply to such private forest. It was also contended that as per section 22 of the Kerala Forest Act, 1961, no right can be acquired in or over a reserved forest except under a grant or contract in writing made by or on behalf of the Government. So also consequent to the enactment of Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, forest land can be diverted only with the prior permission of the Union Government under section 2 of Act, 1980. That apart it was submitted that the purchase certificates and allied documents obtained by the appellants were without the knowledge of the Forest Department and hence they are all null and void, and further that all appellants are encroachers post 1.1.1977,liable to be evicted, and the Forest Officials under
