KUALA TERENGGANU, July 25 — A milestone legal dispute over 25,000 hectares — approximately the size of Penang island — of Terengganu “wakaf” (endowment) land was today postponed to January 2011. The Syariah High Court here made the decision after lawyers representing the defendants, the Terengganu Islamic and Malay Custom Council, pleaded inability to continue with the proceedings due to a lack of preparations .
The case had initially been scheduled to heard for two days, beginning today.
Additionally, the court had also taken into account an ex-parte application from Faridah Yusof, a defence lawyer, seeking to bar media coverage of the proceedings along with a gag order preventing the plaintiffs and their representatives from speaking on the events of the trial.
Presiding Syarie Judge Shaikh Ahmad Ismail also heard an inter-part application, again from the defence, for the case to be conducted behind closed doors.
The landmark case has drawn public scrutiny as it involves the single largest tract of endowment land in the country.
The piece of land in Chendrong was awarded by the late Terengganu ruler, Sultan Zainal Abidin III, to his daughter Tengku Nik Maimunah and her husband Tengku Ngah Omar Abdul Rahim in March 1906, and was later turned into wakaf land, which under Islamic law can only be used for religious or charitable purposes.
The dispute started after some descendents of Tengku Ngah Omar became unhappy with the management of the land by the Terengganu Islamic and Malay Custom Council, and the annual payout.
The case was filed in December 2008 and, after several objections and attempts to seek an out-of-court settlement, was finally heard today.
Judge Shaikh Ahmad decided to allow the ex-parte application to bar the media from covering the case after receiving and passing the draft order from the defendant.
The application of Kamar Ainiah to change the ex-parte injunction to an inter-parte one was rejected.
After the hearing Faridah said that the media cannot cover the case until it is concluded and can get details of the case once published in the Malayan Law Journal.
However, she was reluctant to reveal the contents of the ex-parte application.
Kamar Ainiah however insisted that the media has a responsibility to play as the case is one of public interest. She referred the on-going sodomy trial of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim where the media reporting has not been restricted.
When counsel Faridah said that July 23 report in The Malaysian Insider was detrimental to the defendants, Kamar Ainiah said that the media has access statements of demand which are public documents.
Faridah pointed out the picture of Yang di-Pertuan Agong was used and it was suggested that he was one of the beneficiaries. Kamar Ainiah is in fact one of the beneficiaries.
Lawyers for the defendants asked for the case to be thrown out as the two plaintiffs do not represent all the beneficiaries and also ask for the judge to be replaced.
Kamar Ainiah countered that the application would amount to contempt of court as it would mean refusing to follow the Appeals Court order.
She noted that on June 8 the Appeals Court rejected a similar application.
The judge said he was reluctant to carry on with the proceedings in a situation that is not calm and asked the defendants when they would be ready to continue with the proceedings.
“I am ready at any time. If there are lawyers who are not ready, what can I do,” he said.
The judge then fixed January 23 and 24 for the trial to continue.
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