Court allows judicial review of Paitan folks' NCR claim
Published on: Saturday, August 27, 2011
Kota Kinabalu: The High Court here allowed an application filed by nine natives in Paitan for a judicial review over their native customary rights claims on lands at Kg Lakang in Paitan.Judge Dato' Abdul Rahman Sebli, in allowing the application by Jastin Sansalu, Asyu Na'ang, Iduk Mayabing, Sanyuah Na'ang, Nawas Iduk, Rasduh Rasmin, Ransuni Iduk and Naang Samintar held that the applicants were entitled to the reliefs they sought.The applicants, from the indigenous community of Tombonuwo Paitan generally known as Orang Sungai, named the Director of the Department of Land and Survey Sabah as the first respondent and one Chua Hee Hung as second respondent.
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Among the reliefs allowed by the court, were a declaration that the entire proceedings in Director Land Enquiry (Revision) No.3 of 2011 (or Siasatan Tanah Pengarah (Semakan) No. 3 Tahun 2011) and the decision made by the respondent were wrong in law and hence null and void;An Order of Mandamus to order the first respondent to hear and deliver his decision on the appeals of the second respondent dated Aug. 17, 2010 in Appeal to the Director DLS or the appeals of the second respondent dated Aug 18, 2010, respectively, against the decision of the Assistant Collector of Land Revenues of Beluran dated July 19, 2009;An Order of Prohibition prohibiting the first respondent whether by himself or persons authorised by him from processing, issuing and/or registering the land to the second respondent's land application at Kg Lakang, Paitan, Beluran until the final disposal of the appeals or until further order of the court;An Order of Certiorari to quash the decision of the first respondent to issue and/or register the land title to the second respondent's land application;
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An Order of injunction restraining the second respondent from entering or trespassing or carrying out any site clearing and planting activities or any other activities in the land in dispute at the said village including the lad applied by the second respondent until the final disposal of the appeals or until further order of the court; and an order that damages sustained by the applicants be assessed.The plaintiffs claimed that the native community had settled alongside Sungai Paitan practising hill paddy shifting cultivation at the land situated a distance away from Sungai Paitan for at least six generations.
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They said sometime in November 2006, the indigenous community at Kg. Lakang, Paitan, Beluran applied to the Assistant Collector of Land Revenues of Beluran for a land enquiry to determine their native customary rights in their ancestral land at Kg. Lakang, Paitan that they and their forefathers have been in peaceful possession of and cultivating for some six generations.Sometime in September 2008, the native community became aware of surveying activity carried out near Sungai Paitan where the native community was residing and cultivating. They protested continuously to the Department of Land and Survey against the encroachment to their customary land at Kg. Lakang.The plaintiffs claimed that the oil palm planter, who claimed to have been alienated 500 acres at Sungai Paitan by the government had already started site clearing and planting activities on the land in dispute even before the title for the land was issued to him and had destroyed their customary land, hill paddy fields and crops despite the continued protests by the villagers. They said the villagers had even lodged a police report on the trespassing and encroachment of their ancestral land but no action has been taken so far to stop the encroachment and destruction to the land, paddy fields and crops planted by the village community.In response to their requests, Assistant Collector of Land Revenue (ACLR) Beluran held a land enquiry on April 19, 2010 and allowed part of the claims by the villagers on the grounds of native customary rights for the hill paddy field measuring four to seven acres. However, the planter who claimed to have been alienated 500 acres, not satisfied with the decision of the ACLR Beluran, appealed against the decision to the Director of Land and Survey.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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