PESURUHJAYA TANAH PERSEKUTUAN

On the court record

The Federal Lands Commissioner, litigating the enforcement of a land declaration against the Government under the Government Proceedings Act 1956 and the boundary between damages and constitutional monetary compensation.

Pesuruhjaya Tanah Persekutuan (the Federal Lands Commissioner) holds federal land on behalf of the Government, and it appears in the corpus in disputes over the recovery and transfer of land and the remedies available against the state, appearing as respondent, defendant and third party across the High Court and Court of Appeal.

A major thread is the enforcement of a 2009 High Court declaration concerning a large parcel of land. The question, shared with related proceedings, was whether the court could compel the Government by mandamus to transfer the subject land to a private estate on the strength of that declaration, and whether section 29(1)(b) of the Government Proceedings Act 1956 barred an order for the recovery of land against the Government. A closely connected question of remedy arose separately: after a judicial review had been allowed, whether a claim was properly characterised as one for constitutional monetary compensation or, in substance, a claim for damages, and the law governing constitutional monetary compensation under Order 53 of the Rules of Court 2012.

The Commissioner also appears in ordinary land litigation. One matter concerned a sale and purchase agreement for palm-oil land and the delivery of vacant possession where a neighbouring lot had encroached, engaging the de minimis rule, waiver of encroachment and unjust enrichment. Another was a discovery application under Order 24 of the Rules of Court 2012, which the court allowed in part, limited to a specific valuation report relating to an identified parcel. In a further suit the court, having assessed the evidence, found that a plaintiff had proven a claim on the balance of probabilities and that defendants had breached their obligations. The Commissioner's litigation thus spans the frontier between private land dealings and the special rules — statutory immunities and constitutional remedies — that govern claims touching land held by the state.