Court confirms Ong siblings’ land titles valid, overturns Malay reserve status

Court confirms Ong siblings’ land titles valid, overturns Malay reserve status

PETALING JAYA: The Ipoh High Court has ruled that 16 plots of land in Manjung, Perak, purchased by two siblings in 2012 are not Malay reserve land, declaring any administrative declarations to the contrary as unconstitutional and void.

The plaintiffs, Daniel Ong and Connie Ong, discovered in 2023 that their lands had been purportedly registered as Malay reserve land in 2015 – three years after they bought them – despite their land titles having no endorsement to that effect.

The Ongs had sought a declaration that the reservation was invalid under Article 89 of the Federal Constitution and Section 6 of the Malay Reservation Enactment 1933.

High Court judge Moses Susayan today declared that the plaintiffs’ lands were never Malay reserve land.

Susayan also ruled that the plaintiffs’ registered titles remain valid and indefeasible, and that any administrative action made on the land post-2012 contravening Article 89 of the Federal Constitution to be null and void.

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Article 89 of the Federal Constitution states that land owned by non-Malays cannot be registered as Malay reserve land, and vice versa.

The court directed the Perak land and mines department to remove any references or restrictions indicating Malay reserve status on the 16 plots of land within 60 days.

He also awarded RM10,000 in costs to the plaintiffs.

Sachpreetraj Singh Sohanpal, Rajesh Nagarajan and Nur Izyan Azimi represented the Ongs while senior federal counsel Fitri Sadarudin represented the defendants; the Perak land and mines department, the Manjung land office, the Perak menteri besar and the Perak government.