Orang Asli win appeal against firm for desecration of ancestral graves

PUTRAJAYA: Seven Orang Asli villagers from Pekan won their appeal before the Federal Court today in a lawsuit against a private firm over the destruction of their ancestral graves for agricultural development.

The panel, led by Justice Nordin Hassan, reinstated the High Court’s 2023 ruling in favour of Rosli Jedut, Atan Baro, Melah Hamid, Awang Bako, Esah Wir, Kasim Awang, and Majib Kasim.

The court also upheld the award of RM140,000 in damages to the seven individuals.

On the panel with Nordin were Justice Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera and Lee Swee Seng.

The villagers sued Agrobest (M) Sdn Bhd and its two employees, seeking compensation after the graves in Kampung Batu 20 were overrun by bulldozers eight years ago.

In 2024, the Court of Appeal dismissed the lawsuit, citing a lack of legal standing.

In reading the court’s decision today, Lee said the appeals court had erred in holding that the seven villagers lacked the legal standing to file the suit.

He said some of the plaintiffs had produced photographic evidence of the destruction of their ancestors’ tombstones, the personal items buried with them, and death certificates to prove their relationship to the deceased.

“The defendants did not dispute the presence of those graves, and even prepared a sketch plan to mark the locations.

“It was more a case of their impatience in commencing work of developing the area into the biggest aquaculture park in Asia, as stated in their apology letter to the plaintiffs, that they had commenced the clearing works including clearing away the cemeteries and tombstones,” Lee said.

The court noted that the villagers lodged around 20 police reports after seeing the ancestral graves destroyed, the judge said, adding that the reports could not be treated as spurious or speculation.

Customary rights to land cannot be cancelled

Lee also said the Orang Asli had communal and proprietary rights over the land where they lived and foraged, farmed and fished, despite not owning land titles.

“The usufructuary rights of the community would include the right to visit their ancestors’ grave sites as part of their cultural and spiritual connection with the land on which they have been.

“Issuance of land titles (by the state to individuals or organisations) cannot simply cancel or extinguish their customary rights to their land.

“The desecration of graves strikes at the core of their dignity and infringed their constitutional rights,” he said, adding that they were entitled to bring a claim against the trespassers.

Lawyers Steven Thiru and Ananthan Moorthi appeared for the seven Orang Asli while Henry Ngok and Ng Si Hui appeared for the company and employees.