PUTRAJAYA, Thurs: The Malaysian Bar yesterday held further discussion with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment over the proposed amendments to section 340(3) of the National Land Code 1965 (NLC) with the intention of "legislatively reversing" the Federal Court's 2000 decision of Adorna Properties Sdn Bhd v Boonsom Boonyanit ("Adorna Properties").
The Bar's representative, Roger Tan, who is also a Bar Councillor and immediate past chairman of the Conveyancing Practice Committee, took the opportunity to brief the new Minister of Natural Resources and Environment, Datuk Douglas Uggah Embas and his officials on the Bar's proposed amendments vide the memorandum submitted to his predecessor, Datuk Seri Hj. Azmi bin Khalid on July 14 last year. Tan was accompanied by Rohani Adnan, Assistant Director and Head of the Conveyancing Practice Department.
The meeting held here at Wisma Sumber Asli yesterday and chaired by Datuk Douglas Uggah Embas was a follow–up to two earlier meetings the Bar had with the government officials in March and July this year.
In the two–hour meeting yesterday, Tan reiterated the Bar's position as follows:
• that the Federal Court in Adorna Properties has incorrectly interpreted the issue of indefeasibility involving forgery to be one which is based on the principle of immediate indefeasibility and not deferred indefeasibility;
• that the Federal Court by not granting leave to appeal in Au Meng Nam & Anor v Ung Yak Chew & Ors 2007 so that the decision of Adorna Properties could be revisited by our apex court has now left it to Parliament to "legislatively reverse" Adorna Properties by amending section 340(3) NLC so that the injustice caused to an original proprietor who is first in time on the title and who did nothing wrong such as Mrs Boonsom Boonyanit would not be perpetuated; and
• that there are, in fact, two victims involved – the landowner and the bona fide purchaser, whether immediate or subsequent, and therefore, the interest of the two victims has to be addressed in the proposed amendments, preferably by creating a third pillar of protection in our system such as the inception of an assurance fund to compensate such victims of land scams.
All in all, the meeting can be best described as most "robust" as there were many "intellectual exchanges" between Tan and the Deputy Head of Advisory Division (Municipal) of the Attorney General's Chambers, Puan Azian Bt. Mohd Aziz and a professor of land law from the International Islamic University, Professor Dr. Hunud Abia Kadouf.
The meeting ended with the Minister requesting the Attorney General’s Chambers to make the necessary recommendations to his Ministry so that the same may be forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration