IPOH: In a landmark decision, the High Court here ordered the state government and Land and Mines office to pay RM1.58mil in damages for gross negligence resulting in land fraud.

Judge Harmindar Singh Dhaliwal ruled that the state government and Land and Mines office had breached their statutory duties in protecting the land registry.

This had caused a piece of 2.6ha land in Kampar to change hands four times despite the owner and plaintiff, Shayo (M) Sdn Bhd, still in possession of the land title.

Shayo owned the land since 1994, but in June 12, 2002, the computerised land registration system registered Nurlieda Sidek as the owner. Nurlieda purportedly sold the land to three individuals for RM100,000.

The land was then sold to Lee Heng for about RM228,000 before it was finally sold to Tan Meng Kang for RM1.4mil.

Harmindar ordered the state government and state Land and Mine office to restore Shayo as the land's rightful owner and pay RM60,000 for costs.

“They are also required to pay RM20,000 in costs to each of the six defendants and finally RM1.4mil to Tan,” he said in his judgement.

Shayo had named Nurlieda, Lim Kean Sang, Kuan Kian Seng, Chee Chik Eng, Lee Lai Peng, Lee Heng, Tan Meng Kang, registrar of titles Manshor Yahya, Mior Muhammad Jamil Mior Zakaria, Mohd Syukri Azaari, state Land and Mines office director Datuk Syed Mokhtar Syed Idris and the state government as defendants in its suit submitted in March this year.

The suit was over the loss of the land even though Shayo still possessed the land title. Shayo claimed that the title was fraudulently transferred.

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