The applicants were at material times the registered co-proprietors of all that parcel of land (the said land) situate at Sungai Trus, Sibiau, Bintulu, containing an area of 2.869 hectares (7.09 acres) and described as Lot 136 Kemena Land District. On 16 January 1973, the Government of the State of Sarawak (the Government) caused to be published in the Sarawak Government Gazette a notice (GN No 274) under s 47 (the s 47 notice) of the Land Code (Sarawak Cap 81) (the Land Code) to the effect that all the areas of land specified in the schedule thereto (including the said land), were likely to be needed for the development of Bintulu town. On 25 March 1982, the Government published in the Sarawak Government Gazette a declaration (GN No 1101) under s 48 of the Land Code (the s 48 declaration) to the effect that the said land was required for the provision of a site for residential accommodation for public servants. Pursuant to s 51 of the Land Code, the Superintendent of Lands and Surveys, Fourth Division (the Superintendent) held an inquiry into compensation on 16 July 1985 and, on 11 September 1985, made an award of compensation for the said land under Award No 2/1985 in the sum of RM70,864. The applicants were dissatisfied with the award. They said the award worked out to be just under RM10,000 per acre whereas their valuers valued the said land at RM1.06m at the date of the inquiry on 16 July 1985. Pursuant to leave of the court given on 21 January 1986, the applicants applied by originating motion dated 27 January 1985 for an order of certiorari to remove into this court for the purpose of its being quashed, the award made by the second respondent under s 51 of the Land Code on 11 September 1985 in respect of the said land.

At the hearing, the applicants relied on two of the grounds stated in the statement filedpursuant to O 53 r 1(2) of the Rules of the High Court 1980 in support of the declaration. They are as follows:

(1) A delay of more than nine years between the s 47 notice and the s

48 declaration and/or a further delay of about 31u2 years from

the date of the s 48 declaration and the award made under s 51 of

the Land Code was long, inordinate and grossly unreasonable and

tantamount to an abuse of power rendering the s 47 notice and the

s 48 declaration, the subsequent inquiry and award made under s

51 and all subsequent proceedings null and void.

(2) The long, inordinate and grossly unreasonable delay aforesaid,

resulting in an inadequate compensation to the applicants, brings

the enquiry and award under s 51 of the Land Code outside the

purview and scope of the Land Code, [was] not in accordance

with the Land Code, and contrary to the law and/or cl (1) of art

13 of the Federal Constitution.

With regard to the first ground, there appears to be three distinct complaints of delay. The first is the delay in making the s 48 declaration nine years after the s 47 notice. The second is the delay in making the award 121u2 years after the s 47 notice. The third is the delay in making the award 31u2 years after the s 48 declaration. The relevant statutory provisions are to be found in ss 47, 48, 49 and 51 of the Land Code. So far as material, they read as follows:

47 (1) Whenever the Minister decides that land in any locality is

likely to be needed for any of the purposes specified in s 46,

the Superintendent shall cause a public notice of the substance

of such decision to be given at convenient places in such

locality, and thereupon any officer or other person either

generally or specially authorized by the Minister in this behalf

and his servants and workmen may enter upon such land and may

survey, bore, take levels, set out and mark boundaries, and do