KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 14 — The High Court has heard that the government made a settlement offer to Semantan Estate (1952) Sdn Bhd in the ongoing land compensation trial involving 263.272 acres (106ha) of prime land in the capital, known as the Duta Enclave.
Senior Federal Counsel Nurhafizza Azizan informed Judge Roslan Mat Noor that she had received instructions yesterday to extend the offer, adding that any settlement proposal would require approval from the Finance Ministry.
“My Lord, under the circumstances, we would like to settle the case as soon as possible, but to be fair to the plaintiff (Semantan Estate), I am sure they will need some time to confer with their clients before they can decide as to whether the matter can be settled amicably,” she said.
Following the offer, counsel Ira Biswas, representing Semantan Estate, applied for an adjournment, to which Nurhafizza raised no objection. However, details of the offer were not disclosed to the court.
Justice Roslan ruled that while the court had discretion to adjourn proceedings, that discretion could not be exercised arbitrarily once trial dates had been fixed.
“The discretion to adjourn a trial lies with the court. However, it is important to state that the court cannot simply adjourn a trial arbitrarily,” he said.
The judge then called the plaintiff’s first witness, licensed property valuer Foo Gee Jen, to testify.
Foo, who has nearly 40 years of experience, said he was instructed to assess compensation for the 263.272-acre parcel in Mukim Batu pursuant to a Court of Appeal order dated 24 June 2025, as well as to determine the property’s market value.
He testified that after superimposing the government's survey plans onto current site layouts, his team found that major highways such as Jalan Duta, the New Klang Valley Expressway (NKVE), and the Jalan Duta-Sungai Buloh Highway were already depicted on the maps, even though they were developed decades after 1956.
As such, the documents relied upon by the government could not accurately represent the true physical condition or surrounding environment of the subject land at the material time.
The hearing will continue on Friday (August 21).
On November 13 last year, the Federal Court dismissed Semantan Estate's application for leave to appeal against the Court of Appeal's decision that the Federal Territory Land Titles Registrar did not need to register 263.272 acres of land in Duta Enclave in the name of the company.
Thus, the Court of Appeal's decision in favour of the government remains in force because the company cannot continue its appeal to the Federal Court after failing to obtain leave. The case was then returned to the High Court for a hearing to assess damages.
On June 24, 2025, the Court of Appeal ruled that Semantan Estate was not entitled to title to the land, but that the company was entitled to appropriate compensation, to be assessed based on the value of the land in 1956, when it was acquired by the government.
The disputed land is located in the prime area of Jalan Duta, known as the Duta Enclave, which houses government buildings, including the National Hockey Stadium, the Malaysian Integrity Institute, the National Archives, the Kuala Lumpur Syariah Court, the Inland Revenue Board, and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission Academy.
The dispute involving Semantan Estate began in 2003 when the company sued the government, claiming that the land was acquired illegally.
In 2009, Judicial Commissioner Zura Yahya ruled in favour of Semantan Estate, holding that the government had acquired the land illegally and that the company had a beneficial interest in it.
