GANESAN A/L A. RENGAN v Pentadbir Tanah Daerah Klang PENCELAH West Coast Expressway Sdn Bhd

Case Significance

Illustrates the statutory and jurisdictional bars — section 29 Government Proceedings Act 1956, section 54 Specific Relief Act 1950 and the no-injunction-against-Government rule — to restraining a compulsory land acquisition once Borang K has been endorsed.

This High Court decision at Shah Alam concerns an attempt, by originating summons, to halt a compulsory land acquisition after the process had substantially run its course, and the proper forum for such a challenge. The applicant sought to suspend the acquisition of his land under the Land Acquisition Act 1960 (Akta Pengambilan Tanah 1960), after Form K (Borang K) had already been issued and endorsed. As the catchwords record, the endorsement of Borang K had the effect that the relevant portion of the land telah menjadi tanah Kerajaan (had become Government land). The proposed intervener was the expressway concessionaire for whose project the land had been taken.

The court identified several intertwined questions. The first was whether the applicant's originating summons was barred by section 29 of the Government Proceedings Act 1956 and section 54 of the Specific Relief Act 1950, provisions that restrict injunctive relief against the Government. The second was whether the application amounted to an encroachment upon the right of the State Government and the Federal Lands Commissioner to acquire land under statutory power. The third was whether special circumstances existed to justify a stay, and the fourth was whether the correct platform for the applicant's grievance was judicial review rather than an originating summons.

On the injunction question, the court applied the long-settled principle, drawn from Government of Malaysia & Ors v Lim Kit Siang and reaffirmed in later authority, that no injunction may be issued, directly or indirectly, against the Government or its officers, and that a court has no jurisdiction to injunct a private litigant where the injunction would in effect restrain the Government from performing its functions. On that footing the originating summons could not achieve its object. The judgment is a useful illustration of the statutory and jurisdictional barriers to restraining a compulsory acquisition once Borang K has been endorsed, and of the courts' insistence that such challenges proceed, if at all, by the correct procedural route.