KUALA LUMPUR – Putrajaya has no legal standing to sue the Kelantan government over alleged encroachments into Orang Asli settlements in Gua Musang, ruled the Court of Appeal.
In a ruling today, the appellate bench chaired by Datuk Lau Bee Lan dismissed the suit filed by the federal government in 2019.
She added that the Orang Asli could file for action against the state government in their own capacity.
The federal government, she said, bears a fiduciary duty under the federal constitution but there is no provision in the constitution that allows it to institute legal action on behalf of the Orang Asli.
“This subject matter does not fall under Article 128(1)(b) of the constitution.”
Joining Lau in the three-person bench are Datuk P. Ravinthran and Datuk Mohd Sofian Abdul Razak.
Putrajaya’s suit in 2019 against the Kelantan government was a landmark case linked to Orang Asli land rights.
In the suit, the federal government – then led by Pakatan Harapan – was seeking an injunction to stop private entities from encroaching into Orang Asli lands for commercial purposes.
“The beneficiaries of this suit are the Orang Asli. The litigation will be cost-free to them,” then attorney-general Tan Sri Tommy Thomas had said in a statement.
The Kelantan government and its agencies had granted logging permits to private entities to enter the native land of the Temiar Orang Asli in Pos Simpor, near Gua Musang.
Bernama had said in its statement of claim, the federal government named Fleet Precision Sdn Bhd, the Kelantan state land and mines director, the Kelantan state Forestry Department director, the Kelantan government, Koperasi Kijang Mas Negeri Kelantan Bhd, KPG Maju Enterprise Sdn Bhd, Ringgit Saksama Sdn Bhd and M7 Plantation Bhd as the first to eighth defendants.
On August 20, 2019, the Kota Baru High Court dismissed the Kelantan government’s application to strike out the suit, after ruling that the high court has jurisdiction to hear the legal action filed by the federal government against the PAS-led state administration.
The Kelantan government filed its application on the grounds that the federal government does not possess locus standi to institute the action. – The Vibes, June 3, 2021
