JUDGMENT

Mahadev Shankar J:

On the face of it this is an application for an extension of a caveat pending the conclusion of a suit in this Court. But a question of paramount importance it raises is whether a caveatable interest is acquired by a purported purchaser of land which has a restriction in interest that it cannot be sold, pledged, charged or transferred in any manner without the permission of the State Authority.

The land comprised in H.S.(M)1592 No. P.T. Batu 2 in the Mukim of Sepang (the said land) was alienated to the first defendant on 26 October 1987. The special condition read as follows:

Sekatan-Sekatan Kepentingan Tanah ini tidak boleh dijual, dipajak, digadai atau dipindahmilik dengan apa cara sekalipun tanpa kebenaran Pihak Berkuasa Negeri.

In the face of this restriction the first defendant entered into a purported deed of sale of the said land to the plaintiff on 9 September 1988, for a sum of RM32,000. There is no reference whatsoever to the said restriction in the Deed of Sale. Nor has it been explained why the figure of RM32,000 has in places been deleted and substituted with a sum of RM25,000. The plaintiff holds himself out in this Court as an illiterat