Kerajaan Negeri Johor

On the court record

Illustrates how the courts review State land decisions under the National Land Code, adjudicate civil claims against the State, and police the boundary between the State's proprietary and regulatory functions and private rights.

The Kerajaan Negeri Johor (the Johor State Government) appears in this corpus predominantly as a respondent or defendant, in land, administrative and civil litigation touching the exercise of State authority. A dominant strand concerns land under the National Land Code 1965 (Kanun Tanah Negara 1965): the conversion of land use and a refusal by the Land Administrator, appeals against the land authority under section 418, and the express conditions of a holding (syarat nyata — express condition) binding a registered proprietor, where a developer or landowner challenges a decision affecting the use or terms of its land. These matters engage the statutory powers of the district land administrator and the remedies available to a proprietor aggrieved by a land decision. A second strand concerns civil claims against the State, including a negligence claim arising from a road accident said to have been caused by a pothole or ponding on a road surface, and applications by the State to strike out a writ and statement of claim under Order 18 rule 19 of the Rules of Court 2012 as disclosing no reasonable cause of action or as an abuse of process. Because the State exercises proprietary, regulatory and public functions within its constitutional sphere, many decisions turn on the limits of that authority and the correct defendant. The matters in this corpus are decided in the High Court. Collectively the decisions in which the Johor State Government is a party illustrate how the courts review State land decisions under the National Land Code, adjudicate civil claims against the State, and police the boundary between the State's proprietary and regulatory functions and the rights of those who deal with it. Several of the reported matters also engage the remedies available to a proprietor aggrieved by a land decision and the procedural discipline attaching to a challenge against the State, including the striking out of claims that disclose no reasonable cause of action. Across these matters the courts mark the limits of the State's proprietary and regulatory authority against the entitlements of those who hold or deal with land under the National Land Code 1965.