Sikie: Native courts to fullpledged judicial institution
The current Native Courts would be restructured and elevated from being just a unit under the Premier’s Department to be a full-pledged judicial institution that is independent and autonomous under the Master Plan for the Transformation of the Native Courts Sarawak.
At this juncture, the target is to table the New Native Court Bill during the next State Legislative Assembly (DUN) sitting, Minister in the Premier’s Department Datuk John Sikie Tayai said.
“The new court would not be fully part of the state administration. The other changes would involve the hierarchy and organisational structure of the current native court system. For these changes to take effect, the recommendation in the Master Plan is for the government to repeal the current Native Courts Ordinance 1992 and to enact a new Native Courts Bill,” he said in his ministerial winding-up speech yesterday.
Sikie, in his last address in the august House in May, said he had touched on the ongoing effort by the state government to restructure and elevate the status of the Native Courts of Sarawak.
“The ultimate objective is to transform the current Native Courts into an independent judicial system like the syariah and civil courts and towards this end, the government had commissioned a study in 2020 to produce a Master Plan for the transformation.
“I am pleased to inform this august House that the study, which had been conducted by a local team of consultants, was completed in February this year after a delay of 14 months largely due to the Covid-19 pandemic and other factors beyond our control,” he said.
He added that the final report containing the master plan had been approved by the Study Steering Committee chaired by the Deputy Premier and Bukit Saban assemblyman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas.
“The approval of the study final report in September this year would now pave the way for follow-up actions by the Chief Registrar Native Courts Sarawak mainly to submit the Master Plan to the state government for approval.
“This process of compiling papers for submission to the Majlis Mesyuarat Kerajaan Negeri (State Executive Council) is in the final stage. I am confident that the state government will favourably consider and approve the Master Plan before the next meeting of this august House,” he said.
On a related note, Sikie informed that up to Nov 24 the total number of registered cases at the Native Courts stood at 16,468.
“Out of this, 10,634, or 64.6 per cent, of the cases have been settled. The Native Courts Sarawak is making a proactive action in settling the outstanding cases through the Contract Magistrates to assist the court. The focus is on the settlement of cases involving Native Customary Rights (NCR) land disputes and land compensation,” he said.