JABATAN KETUA PENGARAH TANAH DAN GALIAN PERSEKUTUAN

On the court record

A federal lands-and-mines authority litigating land-acquisition compensation, indefeasibility of title under section 340 of the National Land Code, and the standing to challenge historic land dealings.

Jabatan Ketua Pengarah Tanah dan Galian Persekutuan (the Federal Department of the Director General of Lands and Mines) is a federal land authority, and it appears in the corpus as a defendant or respondent in disputes over land acquisition, title and the standing to challenge dealings in land. The matters are argued in both English and Malay in the High Court.

Land acquisition and compensation are a recurring theme. In one matter the court addressed the compensation payable to beneficial owners, the intervention of a bare trustee, and the indefeasibility of title, engaging section 340 of the National Land Code, section 16 of the Land Acquisition Act, Article 13 of the Federal Constitution and Order 15 rule 6(2) of the Rules of Court 2012, together with questions of fraud, illegality, functus officio and locus standi. These are the characteristic issues where compulsory acquisition meets private ownership and the register must be reconciled with competing beneficial interests.

Title disputes and the striking out of claims also feature. In a Malay-language originating summons the plaintiffs, as new owners of two parcels said to have been bought from a since-deceased vendor in 1966, sought a declaration of their ownership, while the vendor's heirs challenged the existence of the sale and purchase agreement, the original of which could not be located despite efforts to trace it, so that the existence of contemporaneous documents became critical. The Department was also the moving party in striking-out applications under Order 18 rule 19(1)(b) and (d) of the Rules of Court 2012, and under the court's inherent jurisdiction, to strike out writs and statements of claim brought against it. In one suit the court, having weighed the evidence, found a plaintiff had proven his claim on the balance of probabilities and that defendants had breached their obligations. The Department's role is that of the federal land authority whose acquisitions and registrations are repeatedly tested in disputes over ownership, compensation and standing.