Hj. Abdul Kadir bin Sulaiman J:

This is an application by the applicant for an order that her caveat against a parcel of land known as Lot 678, Block 12, Muara Tebas Land District ("the said land") should not lapse and should remain until further order of this Court. As a registered proprietor and by virtue of a statutory declaration the applicant caveated various parcels of her land. One of the parcels of land in question is the said land. The caveat was registered at the Kuching Land Registry Office on 30 January 1992 as Instrument No. L. 1527/1992 ("the said caveat"). This application is made in consequence of her receipt of a notice by the Assistant Registrar, Land and Survey Department, Kuching pursuant to s. 178 of the Sarawak Land Code (Cap. 81), ("the Code") giving her the required 3 months notice wherein after the lapse of the said period, in so far as it affects the said land, the said caveat shall be deemed to have lapsed and the said caveat shall be removed.

In order to succeed in her application, the applicant must establish that she has a caveatable interest over the said land. Section 173 of the Code states as follows:

173. Any person:

(a) claiming to be entitled to or to be beneficially interested in any land, estate or interest under this Code by virtue of any unregistered agreement or other instrument or transmission or of any trust express or implied or otherwise howsoever; (b) who is a guardian of the property of an infant beneficially interested in any land or any estate or interest therein; or (c) transferring any estate or interest under this Code to any person to be held in trust,

may at any time lodge with the Registrar a caveat in Form O in the First Schedule. In as far as her application before this Court is concerned, subparagraphs (b) and (c) do not apply. She is to establish that she has caveatable interest pursuant to subparagraph (a) of s. 173. Under this subparagraph she must be a person claiming to be entitled to or to be beneficially interested in any land, estate or interest under the Code and that it is so claiming by virtue of any unregistered agreement or other instrument or transmission, or of any trust express or implied or otherwise howsoever.

At the time of the lodging of the said caveat the applicant filed with the Registrar a statutory declaration giving reasons for wanting to caveat her properties. According to the declaration, by a Power of Attorney executed on the 22 May 1986 which was registered as Instrument No. L. 9391/1986 on the 13 August 1986, she appointed the respondent to be her attorney to do execute and perform all or any acts, deeds, matters and things named therein relating to her properties (which includes the said land). Subsequently it came to her notice that her attorney, who was also given a Power of Attorney by her brother, is being sued by her brother for failing to account to him under the Power of Attorney. Her brother lodged a caveat registered as Instrument No. L. 8028/1991 on his own properties to protect his interest. On account of the lodgment of the caveat by the brother, a purported trust deed mysteriously appeared whereby her brother's attorney and his siblings are claiming ownership of the properties of the brother. Because of this incident she made a search in regard to her own properties and she discovered that her properties too have been caveated by the respondent based on a Trust Deed supposedly declared by her, which according to her was untrue. So being the registered owner of her properties, she found that it is necessary that her interests be protected in a similar way by lodging a caveat over the properties while she seek the assistance of a lawyer to make application to Court for the removal of the respondent's caveat over her properties and also to have Power of Attorney previously given by her to the respondent revoked so that her interest in the properties may not be jeopardised by her attorney, the respondent, by freely