Sime Darby Plantation Berhad v 1. ) PENGARAH TANAH DAN GALIAN PULAU PINANG 2. ) Pentadbir Tanah Daerah Seberang Perai Selatan 3. ) PENANG DEVELOPMENT CORPORATION 4. ) Kerajaan Negeri Pulau Pinang

Case Significance

Confirms that the time limit for judicial review of a land acquisition under Order 53 is jurisdictional: a late application is incompetent and will be dismissed without reaching the merits, and grounds not pleaded in the Order 53 statement cannot be considered.

This High Court decision at Penang concerns a landowner's challenge to a compulsory acquisition by way of judicial review, and it turns on the strict time limit for bringing such a challenge. The applicant, a plantation company, was the registered proprietor of numerous lots in Mukim 11, Daerah Seberang Perai Selatan, that had been the subject of an acquisition gazetted for a public purpose described as mixed industrial and development use under the Land Acquisition Act 1960. The applicant sought judicial review to impugn the acquisition, invoking the right to property under Article 13 of the Federal Constitution and the judicial-review procedure in Order 53 of the Rules of Court 2012. The respondents included the state land and mines authority, the district land administrator, a development corporation and the Government.

The court's decision rested on jurisdiction rather than the merits. It found that the judicial review application had not been filed within the time limited for its filing, which it treated as a jurisdictional requirement rather than a mere irregularity. Bound by the principle of stare decisis — to stand by what has already been decided — the court held that it was compelled to find the application, in respect of seventeen of the lots, to be incompetent, so that the court had no jurisdiction to determine it. It also observed that grounds not properly pleaded in the Order 53 statement could not be considered.

The court dismissed the judicial review application in relation to the seventeen lots, with costs of RM20,000 payable by the applicant to the development corporation and a further RM20,000 to the first, second and fourth respondents, subject to allocatur, while noting that the applicant could still proceed with the application in respect of one remaining lot. The judgment illustrates that the time limit for judicial review of a land acquisition is jurisdictional, and a late or inadequately pleaded application will be struck down without reaching the merits.