Sime Darby Plantation retains land in Melaka after amicable settlement

SIME Darby Plantation Bhd (SDP) retains a 185.5-acre plot of land in Melaka, following the amicable settlement of a judicial review of a compulsory acquisition of the land.

A consent order was recorded between SDP, the director of land and mines of Melaka, the land administration of Jasin, the state government of Melaka, and GI A Resources Sdn Bhd in the High Court on July 21.

The consent order requires the director of land and mines of Melaka, the land administration of Jasin, and the state government of Melaka to withdraw the compulsory acquisition of SDP’s land, which is located in Merlimau, Jasin.

In this regard, the director of land and mines of Melaka has to publish a notification of the withdrawal of the compulsory acquisition in the Government Gazette within 30 days.

Following that, GI A Resources has to file a notice of discontinuance for its appeal filed to the Court of Appeal within five days of receiving a copy of the Government Gazette.

The settlement is considered complete upon the withdrawal of the compulsory acquisition of the land, along with the completion of every other settlement term in the consent order.

“With this consent order, the company’s application for judicial review has come to an end and the land remains a property of the company,” said SDP in its Bursa filing dated July 21.

The judicial review was called in April 2019, with SDP claiming the actions of the other parties involved as “wrongfully initiating compulsory acquisition of its land,” with the company seeking the order of the High Court in nullifying the acquisition, and a declaratory relief that the Land Acquisition Act 1960 “cannot be abused to compulsorily acquire land belonging to the company for the benefit of a foreign-owned company.”

SDP had also noted in its April 30, 2019 Bursa filing that its solicitors believed it had strong grounds for this action to protect its assets.

This was followed by the Melaka High Court allowing SDP to commence the judicial review, while granting a stay of all further proceedings in the land acquisition until the end of the judicial review.

At 2.40pm, SDP’s shares were last done at RM5.10, down 2 sen, with 330,300 shares traded. – July 21, 2020

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