Bidor farmers allowed to return to contested land

IPOH: A group of farmers who have been working on a piece of land in Bidor Coldstream for decades will be allowed to return to it after the High Court here granted a consent order.

Judge Datuk Bhupindar Singh Gurcharan Singh Preet granted the order in chambers to the farmers on Friday (Sept 22).

Counsel Ng Kian Nam, representing the farmers, said the order was granted with the consent of the plaintiff, Bikam Maju Sdn Bhd.

Ng said in the order, it was stated that the 18 farmers represented by his firm are allowed to intervene as defendants in this case, where the plaintiff was requesting a summary possession of the piece of land measuring 67.2 ha (166 acres).

"In the order, it is also stated that the summary possession order obtained by the plaintiff on Aug 8 is set aside whereby the farmers are allowed to enter their defence in this case.

"So this means, from today, the representative of the plaintiff no longer has the right to enter the said land to collect crops or livestock of the settlers.

"The settlers can also return to the land as usual to (tend to) their crops or livestock," he said.

Melvin Kong from Ng's firm represented the farmers in court on Friday.

Ng said on Aug 24, about 10 people appointed by the plaintiff had entered the land in question to evict the farmers, and were collecting their crops and livestock until now on the grounds that they had obtained a court order.

He said the plaintiff had violated the court rules, as it never served the application on the farmers, who had been toiling on the land for three generations.

Meanwhile, Jasbeer Singh, a spokesman for the farmers, said they were relieved to hear that they could go back to their farms.

"We thank our lawyers for helping us. We are glad we can tend our farms again finally," he added.