PUTRAJAYA, Jan 17 — In a landmark ruling today, the Court of Appeal declared the Selangor Islamic Religious Department’s (Jais) compulsory acquisition of a private company’s 26-acre land to build a purported “mega mosque” as unlawful and invalid.

Lawyer Rosli Dahlan, who represented the private landowner United Allied Empire Sdn Bhd (UAE) that had accused the Selangor Islamic body of abuse of power for the alleged land grab, said today’s ruling meant that the land will have to be returned to his client.

“The Court of Appeal has declared the acquisition of 26 acres to build a mosque as an illegal acquisition; it is mala fide, it is not genuine,” he told reporters when met here after the decision was delivered, using the legal term for “in bad faith”.

Landmark ruling

Rosli said today’s court decision was also a “landmark” ruling which effectively enhanced the protection of landowners’ rights in Malaysia, by clarifying the procedural requirements and process in law that public bodies must fulfill before forcibly acquiring private land.

“The Court of Appeal strengthened the right of landowners by insisting on Form A and Form K to be construed in accordance with the Land Acquisition Act,” he said.

The Selangor authorities had previously admitted failure to issue the Form A — a public notice to notify that the land will be acquired and the very first step in a compulsory acquisition process — for the UAE land. They had also failed to show documentary evidence in court that they had registered the required changes in land title records after issuing Form K, which is a notice of formal possession of the acquired land.

“It (today’s decision) has a wide implication because in the past, the PTDs (District Land Administrators) and PTGs (Land and Mines Directors) just bypass the requirement to gazette Form A. Now this court says that is a mandatory requirement.

“Secondly on Form K, that Form K does not shut the door to landowners,” Rosli said

He said the court’s ruling today that the issuing of Form K alone does not end the landowners’ rights to pursue a challenge against a land acquisition departed from the landmark 2014 land case of Ishmael Lim Abdullah.

The issue of Form K’s effect was crucial to determine if UAE still had the legal standing to continue with its lawsuit, with UAE’s lawyers having argued that a landowner’s’ rights will only end after the endorsement of memorial or the recording of the state’s rights over the acquired land.
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