SIME DARBY PLANTATION BERHAD

On the court record

A plantation company litigating compensation, intervention and market value in compulsory land acquisition under the Land Acquisition Act 1960.

Sime Darby Plantation Berhad appears in the corpus principally in land-acquisition and compensation proceedings under the Land Acquisition Act 1960.

One matter, at appellate level, concerned an application by a utility, as paymaster, to intervene in a land reference initiated by a landowner. The court examined whether a paymaster has standing to participate without filing Form N, whether it is a person interested under section 37 of the Land Acquisition Act 1960, and the proper procedural mechanism where the Act is silent, engaging Order 15 rule 6(2)(b) of the Rules of Court 2012. It also addressed stare decisis where two Federal Court decisions conflicted, applying the principle that the later apex decision prevails.

A second matter was a judicial review against a statutory acquisition. The court's framing recorded that the application was filed out of time and that the Order 53 statement was insufficient, placing the focus on the procedural preconditions for judicial review rather than the merits of the acquisition.

A third matter concerned five neighbouring lots compulsorily acquired for a high-voltage electricity transmission line, with the High Court sitting with a government assessor and a private assessor under section 40 of the Land Acquisition Act 1960. The court held that the determination of market value is a finding of fact, that the comparative method is the safest guide, and that the applicant's comparables were materially dissimilar. On injurious affection under paragraph 2(d) of the First Schedule, it held that fears about electromagnetic fields alone were insufficient, but that permanent physical restrictions and diminution of utility from the transmission corridor were established, awarding additional compensation across the lots and allowing severance where land was physically divided.

These proceedings show a plantation company litigating compensation, intervention and market value in compulsory acquisition. Outcomes are stated only as recorded. Across these matters the company engaged both the substantive question of compensation and the procedural gateways of intervention and timeliness that govern access to that relief.