Federal Court rules in favour of parties in land development scheme in Pantu

KUCHING: The Federal Court in Putrajaya has set aside the decisions of the High Court and Court of Appeal that the land development scheme on Native Customary Rights (NCR) land in Pantu, Sri Aman was unlawful.

A five- man panel of the Apex Court led by Chief Justice Tun Md Raus Sharif, in allowing the appeals brought by the Land Custody And Development Authority ( LCDA), Pelita Holdings Sdn Bhd ( PHSB) and Tetangga Akrab Pelita (Pantu) Sdn Bhd and the state government, unanimously held that the NCR land development scheme for an oil palm plantation project at Pantu described as ‘ The Sungai Tenggang NCR Land Development Area’ was valid.

In delivering the judgement, Justice Tan Sri Suriyadi Halim Omar said the 381 Iban landowners who had consented to the NCR land development scheme at Pantu had lawful NCR plots within the development area.

The other judges were Tan Sri Zainun Ali, Datuk Balia Yusof Wahi and Tan Sri Jeffrey Tan Kok Wha.

While noting that some in the opposing group also had NCR over part of the development area, Justice Suriyadi, however, said the identity of these persons in the opposing group who had NCR rights in the development area had to be ascertained by the government through a proper enquiry.

He added that once the identity of the persons in the opposing group had been ascertained, compensation should be paid to them under Section 15 of the Land Custody and Development Authority Ordinance 1981.

Within an area that was gazetted for development, 381 NCR land owners had agreed to join the development scheme in Pantu and signed an agreement with the state government and LCDA to have their NCR land developed under the ‘ new concept’ of NCR land development.

However, there were about 100 of the Iban landowners who refused to join the development scheme. They claimed that the development scheme was illegal because PHSB was at the time not native and therefore could not form a joint venture company known as Tetangga Akrab Pelita ( Pantu) Sdn Bhd with a Johor plantation company.

The state government said that these 100 opposing Iban landowners did not have NCR in the development area declared by the Chief Minister for NCR land development in Pantu, while the opposing group insisted that their NCR land was in the development area.

The opposing group alleged that the consenting group of 381 people were bogus NCR claimants and the development area belonged to them. The opposing group comprised opposition politicians including Dato Sri Daniel Tajem, whi le the consenting group comprised Barisan Nasional supporters including Datuk Mong Dagang.

The vi l lagers led by Masa Nangkai fi led the lawsuit in 2005, among others, to seek a declaration that they were the original title holders or NCR owners over the disputed land which was gazetted for development and they claimed they never surrendered or waived their NCR rights.

The High Court in Feb 2011 had ruled that the villagers were entitled to their claim to lands under NCR in the developed area and ordered damages to be given to them to be assessed by the deputy registrar.

The appellants were ordered to surrender vacant possession of the NCR plots of land and were restrained from entering or carrying out works on the land.

The Court of Appeal in 2014 also ruled in favour of the villagers, ruling that the villagers had been deprived of their NCR lands which were sources of their livelihood and they had lost the rights to their property in direct violation of the Federal Constitution.