This follows a Court of Appeal decision today to dismiss their application to vary an order preventing them from entering the orchards to maintain the trees.
The Court of Appeal panel, headed by Justice Che Ruzima Ghazali, alongside Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah and High Court judge Noorin Badaruddin, also granted the Pahang Agricultural Development Corporation’s (PKPP) application to be discharged of the responsibility to maintain the trees.
In delivering the court’s decision, Che Ruzima said the farmers should have sought a stay order at the High Court under Section 43 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964.
He said the High Court is the proper forum for the farmers to apply for the stay.
Earlier, PKPP’s lawyer, Fairuz Abdullah, Pahang legal adviser Saiful Edris Zainuddin, and Royal Pahang Durian Resources PKPP Sdn Bhd’s lawyer, Cecil Abraham, argued that the farmers should at first instance seek a stay from the High Court, following the dismissal of their judicial review application to challenge their eviction.
Lawyer Brendan Navin Siva, representing the farmers, countered that they could not apply for the stay at the High Court since there were no pending matters before that court.
He argued that the Court of Appeal could entertain their application as their appeal against the eviction is pending in that court.
On May 28, 2024, Court of Appeal judge Lee Swee Seng denied the farmers’ request to enter the orchards while awaiting the disposal of their eviction appeal.
Lee also made an order that there shall be no destruction of structures or felling of the trees on the affected land, except with the court’s permission, pending the outcome of the appeal.
He also ordered PKPP to maintain the trees by fertilising, watering them and harvesting their fruits, as well as warding off all pests and animals.
He further instructed PKPP to file an affidavit before the 10th of every month to account for the grade of durian fruits and their selling price.
The farmers subsequently went to the Court of Appeal to vary Lee’s order because they claimed that PKPP was not in a position to maintain the trees. Instead, they wanted to take care of the trees themselves.
Meanwhile, PKPP challenged Lee’s order, saying that it involved significant costs and difficulty to carry out work on a large parcel of land.
On April 24, the Kuantan High Court dismissed the farmers’ judicial review application challenging the Pahang government’s decision to evict them from farms in Raub, including areas in Sungai Ruan, Sungai Chalit and Sungai Klau.
That court concluded that the farmers were encroaching on the land and had no legal or equitable rights, while the state government’s eviction order was not malicious.