JUDGMENT

Hadhariah Syed Ismail JCA:

Introduction

[1] This is an appeal by the appellant against the decision of the High Court, given at Kuching on 11 September 2019, granting the respondent's application for an order for sale of the appellant's land described as Lot No 14, Block 16, Salak Land District (the said land).

[2] The appellant raised two legal points. First, the learned Judicial Commissioner erred in his interpretation and application of s 148 of the Sarawak Land Code . His Lordship also misdirected himself by adopting and applying the provision "cause to the contrary" of s 256 of the National Land Code instead of the provision of "in the circumstances seems just" of s 148 and erred in holding that there was no merit in the arguments of the appellant and thereby granting an order for sale of the said land. The learned Judicial Commissioner ought to have appreciated that s 148 confers the Court with a wider discretion to consider the justice of the case than s 256 and accordingly ought to have applied the wide discretionary jurisdiction and found, with all the materials adduced by the appellant before the Court, that it is not "in the circumstances seems just" to grant an o