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Civil court can review Sarawak native court decisions, rules Court of Appeal
A three-man bench chaired by Datuk Mohd Hishamudin Mohd Yunus, sitting with Datuk David Wong Dak Wah and Datuk Umi Kalthum Abdul Majid, unanimously made the ruling when it allowed an appeal in a judicial review of a case involving native customary land.
Disputes heard in Sarawak’s native courts, which also involve native customary land where there is no grant of title from the state government, are heard before assessors who are normally the traditional leaders of the community such as tuai rumah, pemanca, temenggong or penghulu.
The Native Court of Appeal, on the other hand, is presided by a president appointed by the Yang Dipertua Negeri and assisted by two assessors.
When the ownership over a piece of native customary land (NCR), which the state government acquired for the building of a road, was brought to the High Court on appeal, the court decided that the civil court did not have the authority and power to review decisions of the native court.
The court held that the native court has the same authority as civil courts, thus native court cases are not reviewable in the civil court.
The ownership dispute was first heard in the native court in 2002.
The court held that Chinese convert Lynawati Abdullah had shown evidence that she owned the land which was obtained through the Malay custom of “serah”.
But the respondent Abang Sukori Abang Gobil appealed to the native court of appeal which upheld the decision of the lower court on the grounds that she did not have the right to be heard in the native court because she was a Chinese then and was only gazetted a Malay in 2005.
Lynawati then appealed the decision at the High Court. With the Court of Appeal’s decision, the case will be mentioned in the High Court on April 30. – April 18, 2015.
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