Hepworth J:

This was an objection against the award of the deputy collector of land revenue, Butterworth, referred to this Court under s. 38 of the Land Acquisition Act, 1960, in respect of the compulsory acquisition by the Government of the State of Penang of approximately five acres of land owned by the Bertam Consolidated Rubber Co. Ltd. being land (hereinafter referred to as "the land acquired") comprising part of Lot 762, Mukim 6, Province Wellesley North, in the State of Penang.

The land acquired is situated about half a mile from Kepala Batas Village, being a small portion approximately five acres in area of a large lot, Lot 762, which has an area of 2,463 acres. The land is next to the bungalow of the manager of Bertam Estate and fronts on to the Bertam Estate road known as Jalan Bertam.

A declaration in accordance with the provisions of s. 8 of the Act was published in the Government of Penang Gazette

on 14 March 1963. It is, therefore, required to determine the proper "market value" as at 14 March 1963.

The deputy collector of land revenue, Butterworth, held an inquiry on the 18 April 1963 at which Mr. RO Carter, the manager of Bertam Estate, appeared for the owners.

At the inquiry on the 18 April 1963, Mr. Carter asked for an adjournment to enable him to obtain a valuation of the land, and the hearing was adjourned sine die. Although it is not clear from the record I do not think that there is any real doubt that the purpose of the adjournment was to enable Mr. Carter to obtain this valuation. Subsequently a valuation dated 29 April 1963 and made by Mr. GM Davidson was handed to the deputy collector by Mr. Carter. This valuation seems to have been accepted by the deputy collector without any proper admission in evidence at the inquiry because, although it appears in the land reference record, no mention is made of it in the inquiry proceedings. The deputy collector did not hold any further hearing and on 5 September 1963, made a formal award of $2,000 per acre, that is to say $10,000 for the land acquired.

There was some doubt as to whether the owners had in fact made a claim for the purpose of s. 37 of the Act. It was agreed, however, by the learned Senior Federal Counsel on behalf of the Government that the valuation made by Mr. Davidson would be accepted as the owners' claim if the owners were prepared to agree that the amount claimed for the purposes of ss. 37(1) and 51 of the Act was the amount contained in that valuation, that is to say a claim in excess of $100,000. This was agreed by Mr. Abdoolcader on behalf of the owners. The position was therefore, that the owners at the inquiry were claiming a sum in excess of $100,000 as the value of the land as against an ultimate award by the deputy collector of $2,000 per acre, or $10,000 for the 5 acres.

In accordance with s. 40 of the Act the Court appointed Mr. Tay Hooi Soo, JP and Mr. IW Hake as assessors. A copy of the the provisions of the First Schedule of the Act was supplied to each of the assessors prior to the hearing of the reference.

Mr. Abdoolcader appeared for the owners and Enche Wan Suleiman bin Pawan Teh, Senior Federal Counsel, for the deputy collector at the hearing of this reference on the 3, 4 and 5 August 1964.

Kepala Batas is a village on the trunk road some ten miles north of Butterworth. The principal road in the village consists of two sections, the first, known as Jalan Butterworth, branches off from the trunk road and the second, known as Jalan Perak, re-joins the trunk road again about 350 yards further along. The impression is gained that originally these two sections constituted the main road and that the village, as often happens, grew up along both sides of that road. In any event the trunk road now skirts the centre of the village running along its western edge. This particular section of the trunk road is known as Jalan Kedah and, with Jalan Butterworth and Jalan Perak, still encloses the village centre.

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