“THE Dayaks in Sarawak suffered yet another setback in the courts to hold on to their land created by native customary rights.
The Federal Court in Kuching today upheld the appeal of the state-linked land development agency –Land Consolidation and Development Authority (LCDA); two oil palm plantations companies – TH Pelita Sadong Sdn Bhd and TH Pelita Gedong Sdn Bhd; the Sarawak government and RHB Islamic Bank Bhd, against the 2014 decision of the high court, which had ordered NCR land belonging to residents of Kg Lebor in Gedong to be excised from the provisional leases the state government had given to the plantation companies.
The five-man bench, led by Chief Justice of Malaya Mohd Raus Shariff, also set aside the high court order to the Land and Survey Department for rectification of the title registry and the payment of damages.
The court, in unanimously upholding LCDA and the state government’s argument that section 132 of the Sarawak Land Code protected the indefeasibility of the lease title even if it is shown that native customary rights had been created over the land they were alienated, ordered the land owners be compensated for the loss of their land and the quantum to be decided by the Court of Inquiry.”
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