PERBADANAN KEMAJUAN NEGERI KEDAH v Pentadbir Tanah Daerah Padang Terap

Case Significance

Instructive on the reassessment of a Land Administrator's compensation award on a land reference under section 38(1) of the Land Acquisition Act 1960, including the valuation of the land taken and the treatment of severance and injurious affection with the assistance of assessors.

This High Court decision at Alor Setar, Kedah, is a land reference under section 38(1) of the Land Acquisition Act 1960, in which a state development corporation objected to the compensation awarded by the Land Administrator for the compulsory acquisition of part of its land. The applicant corporation's land, held on a long lease and categorised as agricultural, had been acquired under a gazette notification in April 2023 for the construction of an electricity transmission line by the national utility, and the Land Administrator had made a composite award comprising the value of the land taken, an early-entry cost, a severance component for the balance land, and a component for injurious affection arising from the loss of a roadway. The applicant objected under Form N that the land had been undervalued and that the rate awarded did not reflect its true value. The court, per Mohd Aimi Zaini bin Mohd Azhar JC, sitting with a government assessor and a private assessor whose opinions it obtained, allowed the application and revised the award. It increased the compensation for the value of the land taken to a higher rate per square metre, producing a balance payable over the Land Administrator's award, and it recast the severance (pecah pisah) component, substituting a revised figure that yielded a further balance over the amount the Land Administrator had allowed, while declining to consider the injurious-affection component that the Land Administrator had awarded. It ordered that the sums awarded carry interest at 5% per annum from the date of the relevant statutory form until full settlement, fixed the assessors' fees, ordered the return of the deposit to the applicant, and directed that a portion of the award be paid into the applicant's solicitors' client account as stakeholder. The judgment is instructive on the reassessment of a Land Administrator's compensation award on a land reference, including the valuation of the land taken and the treatment of severance and injurious affection.