Pengarah Tanah dan Galian Johor

On the court record

A Johor state land authority litigating the transfer and alienation of land, the private-law enforceability of a State Authority lease, and abuse-of-process limits on re-litigating settled land dealings.

Pengarah Tanah dan Galian Johor (the Director of Lands and Mines, Johor) is the state land authority for Johor, and it appears in the corpus as a defendant or respondent in disputes over the transfer and alienation of land and the standing to re-litigate land dealings, argued under the National Land Code in both English and Malay.

Abuse of process and the finality of land decisions are a recurring theme. In one Malay-language matter the court considered the striking out of a writ and statement of claim under Order 18 rule 19(1)(b), (c) and (d) of the Rules of Court 2012, engaging res judicata, issue estoppel, extended res judicata and the collateral attack on a consent judgment — the familiar tools by which the courts prevent repetitive and vexatious re-litigation of settled land disputes. A related judicial review turned on limitation and when time begins to run, where multiple notices were said to indicate the applicant's knowledge of the impugned decision.

The substance of the land dealings also features. In one matter the applicant sought an order that a Deputy or Senior Assistant Registrar of the court sign a transfer form on behalf of a named vendor so as to transfer the relevant portion of land directly to the applicant, with the Director joined as a respondent — the mechanism by which the court can perfect a transfer where a party will not execute the instrument. At the Federal Court a matter raised whether the alienation of a qualified title by way of lease by a State Authority under the National Land Code, being a contract of lease between the State Authority and the lessee, is enforceable in private law. A further matter concerned an allegation of professional negligence and breach of a duty of care. The Director's footprint is that of a state land authority whose registrations and alienations are repeatedly drawn into disputes over transfer, enforceability and the limits of re-litigation, with the courts policing both the substance of the dealings and the abuse of process that stale or repetitive challenges can involve.