Judgment on 'illegal' S'wak oil palm estate stayed
The Court of Appeal today stayed the execution of a judgment declaring as illegal a joint-venture oil palm plantation agreement between non-natives and natives.
The Court of Appeal today stayed the execution of a judgment declaring as illegal a joint-venture oil palm plantation agreement between non-natives and natives in Sarawak.
The High Court in Kuching had made the ruling in a native customary rights (NCR) land case in Pantu in Sri Aman.
The plaintiffs' lawyer Dominique Ng Kim Ho said the three-member bench in Putrajaya had granted the stay as the case is "a special one".
The plaintiffs are Masa Nangkai, Christopher Ambu, Engkana Talap, Sinju Senabong, Uban Bundan, Albert Waler Skinner Tulis, Jacob Emang, Len Jubang, Liap Giling, Ivanhoe Anthony Belon, Morice Renggi and Gima Belon.
Ng (right), who appeared with Daniel Tajem, said the Court of Appeal did not state any reasons for allowing the stay of High Court judge Linton Albert's Feb 20 ruling that the joint-venture agreement contravened Section 8 of the Sarawak Land Code 1958.
"I am expecting the hearing of the appeal by the defendants to be held very soon," he said when contacted in Putrajaya.
The state-owned land agency Land Custody and Development Authority (LCDA), Pelita Holdings Sdn Bhd (PHSB), Tetangga Arkab Pelita (Pantu) Sdn Bhd (Tetangga) and the state government had applied to the Court of Appeal for a stay of the judgment.
On March 2, the High Court in Kuching had refused to grant the respondents' application for a stay, pending final disposal of the case.
Tetangga is a joint-venture company of PHSB and Tetangga Arkab Sdn Bhd (TASB), which has developed an oil palm plantation on NCR land in the Pantu district.
The state government and a group of NCR landowners have signed a principal deed, in which the landowners agreed to allow the state to develop their land.
The joint venture agreement (JVA) for the development of the 7,000ha of NCR land was signed between LCDA and Tetangga. Both the deed and JVA were signed on Sept 3, 2004.
The plaintiffs are suing on behalf of themselves and 90 other occupiers, holders and claimants of NCR land situated at or around Kampung Tekuyong, Kampung Dadak Aping, Kampung Aping, Kampung Lubok Abok, Kampung Sungai Tenggang, Kampung Limau and Kampung Pantu.
The plaintiffs are Iban natives, who say they are entitled to NCR over the land, described as 'the disputed area land', in the Pantu land district.
They claimed various declaratory reliefs relating to their NCR over land in the disputed area, which has been established to be within the oil palm plantation project, as well as damages.
They further sought restraining orders against LCDA, PHSB and Tetangga and for them to give vacant possession of the plaintiffs' NCR land.
In his judgment, Justice Albert ruled that any JVA between a non-native and native for an oil palm plantation contravenes Section 8 of the Sarawak Land Code.
The judge said neither TASB nor Tetangga had been declared a native at the time of the JVA and it did not matter that Tetangga was subsequently declared a native because it was a principle of antiquity that things invalid from the beginning could not be made valid by a subsequent act.
Justice Albert also said the principal deed and the JVA had deprived the plaintiffs of their NCR land, which was a source of their livelihood, and that the natives had also lost the right to their property, which were violations of Articles 5 and 13 of the constitution.
"Irrespective of the cleverly devised legal mechanisms and legalistic language that constituted the principal deed and the joint-venture agreement, they are mere fig leaves, too scanty to conceal their violations of Articles 5 and 13 of the constitution because the sum total of the rights of the landowners, to put it crudely and for want of a better word, is zero," the judge added.
