Sistem Lingkaran Lebuhraya Kajang Sdn Bhd (SILK) v Pentadbir Tanah Daerah Hulu Langat

Case Significance

Illustrates how a court fixes compulsory-acquisition compensation on a market-value basis, with assessors and the First Schedule to the Land Acquisition Act 1960, after an appellate ruling that the acquired land was not surrendered.

This High Court decision at Shah Alam concerns a land reference determining the compensation payable for land compulsorily acquired for a highway project, in a matter that had already travelled to the Federal Court and back. The applicant in this reference was the concessionaire of the highway, and its reference was consolidated with a related reference brought by the registered landowner over the same lots in the Mukim of Kajang, District of Hulu Langat. The lands, measuring 17,284.67 square metres, had been acquired for the highway, and the Land Administrator had awarded only nominal compensation of RM10.00 for that area on the footing that it was 'surrender' land, together with RM514,948.00 for a smaller excluded area at a rate of RM280.00 per square metre. The central dispute was whether compensation should proceed on the basis that the land had been surrendered or that it had not; the Federal Court had determined that the land in question had not in fact been surrendered, so that the matter returned to the High Court to fix compensation in accordance with the Land Acquisition Act 1960. Sitting with the assistance of two assessors and applying the First Schedule to the Act together with the established valuation principles, the court determined the market value of the acquired lands at RM280.00 per square metre, consistent with the rate the Land Administrator had applied to the excluded area. On that basis the court ordered an increase in the compensation for land value of RM4,839,697.60, with late payment charges at 5 per cent per annum on that sum running from the issuance of Form K on 20 February 2003 until full and final settlement, while maintaining the Land Administrator's other awards and disallowing all other claims. The court ordered the return of the deposits and directed that the assessors' costs be paid. The judgment is a useful illustration of how a court fixes compensation on a willing-buyer willing-seller basis after an appellate determination that acquired land was not surrendered, and of the role of assessors and the First Schedule in that valuation exercise.