Section 2

a grant of probate or letters of administration issued under the provisions of the Administration of

Estates Ordinance [Cap. 80 (1948 Ed.)] or a grant of representation in terms of section 14 of that Ordinance;

an adjudication order in bankruptcy; or

an order of the court under which the property of a person mentally disordered becomes vested in the official assignee or any other person;

“charge” means any charge on land created under of this

Code for securing⎯

the re-payment of a loan or satisfaction of any existing debt;

the re-payment of future advances or payment or satisfaction of any future or unascertained debt or liability contingent or otherwise;

the payment to the holders for the time being of any bonds, debentures, promissory notes or other securities, negotiable or otherwise, made or issued by the chargor before or after the creation of the charge; or

the payment to any person or persons by yearly or periodical payments or otherwise of any annuity, rent, charge or sum of money other than a debt;

“chargee” means the proprietor of a charge;

17

“chargor” means the proprietor of any estate or interest subject to a charge;

“communications”, “network facilities” and “transmission”

shall have the same meanings assigned to those expressions by the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998 [Act 588];

“communication tower” means any tower, pole, structure, facility or equipment used for providing telecommunication services or as part of network facilities for telecommunications or for the transmission or reception of radio, television or satellite signals, broadcast or other media of communications;

[Ins. Cap. A95.]

“community” means a group of persons subject to the same system of personal law :

Provided that if a customary law applies to different groups with divergencies in customary law each group shall constitute a separate community;

“country land” means land other than land declared to be town, suburban or land comprised in a bazaar, whether before or after the 1st day of January, 1958;

“Crown” .......... see “Government”;

“Crown land” .......... see “State land”;

“customary law” means a custom or body of customs to which the law of Sarawak gives effect;

“dealing” means every transfer, charge, lease or other instrument affecting any estate or interest under this Code;

“Director” means the Director of Lands and Surveys, and includes a Deputy Director appointed under section 3;

“document of title” means a grant, lease of State land, occupation ticket, native communal title or other document

18

evidencing title to land whenever issued, but does not include a licence, permit or caveat;

[Ins. Cap. A179.]

“Government”, in respect of acts or things done before the cession of Sarawak, includes any Rajah of Sarawak and any person lawfully authorized to act on behalf of any such Rajah, and save as aforesaid means the Government of Sarawak;

“grant” means a grant of State land issued by or on behalf of the Government;

“Interior Area Land” means land not falling within any of the definitions of Reserved Land, Native Customary Land, Native

Area Land or Mixed Zone Land;

“issue document of title” has the meaning assigned to it by section 117;

“instrument” means any printed or written document relating to the transfer of, or other dealing with, land, or evidencing title thereto, but does not include a caveat;

“land” includes—

that surface of the earth and all substances forming that surface;

land covered with water within the boundary of the State of Sarawak; and

held by a native under a document of title;

declared to be such under a subsisting declaration made under the former Land (Classification)

Ordinance, 1948 [Ord. No. 19/1948], or under section 4(2)

or (3);

which becomes Native Area Land by virtue of section 4(4)(b); or

which becomes Native Area Land by virtue of a direction under section 38(5);

20

“native communal title” means a title issued in accordance with section 6A over a native territorial domain in the name of a person or body of persons as trustee for the native community concerned but without the right of sale or disposal, and such native communal title shall be held to be a title under this Code;

[Add. Cap. A179.]

“Native Customary Land” means⎯

land in which native customary rights, whether communal or otherwise, have lawfully been created prior to the 1st day of January, 1958, and still subsist as such;

land from time to time comprised in a reserve to which section 6 applies; and

Interior Area Land upon which native customary rights have been lawfully created pursuant to a permit under section 10;

“native system of personal law” means the customary law applying to any community, being a community forming the whole or part of any native race specified in the Schedule to the

Interpretation Ordinance, 2005 [Cap. 61];

“native territorial domain” means an area or territory—

within or conjoining or immediately adjacent to an area where native customary rights have been created by that community in accordance with section 5; and

wherein members of a native community have from a date prior to 1st day of January, 1958, exercised usufructuary rights or preserved by them for such purposes:

Provided that such area or territory have not already been constituted a communal forest under Part III of the Forests

Ordinance, 2015 [Cap. 71];

[Add. Cap. A179.]

21

“non-native” means any person who is not a native of

Sarawak as defined by the Interpretation Ordinance, 2005 [Cap.

61];

“permanent forests” and “planted forests” shall have the meanings assigned to these expressions in the Forests Ordinance

[Cap. 126 (1958 Ed.)];

[Ins. Cap. A42.]

“person” has the meaning attributed to it by the

Interpretation Ordinance, 2005, [Cap. 61]:

Provided that for the purposes of the alienation of State land under Part III, or of being registered as the proprietor of any estate or interest in land under Part VII, or for the purpose of any future dealing in any estate or interest in land which requires to be registered under this Code, but without prejudice to sections 221 to 226 inclusive, a person shall be deemed to include only the persons mentioned in section 13(5);

“previous register” means any register kept under the former

Land Ordinance [Cap. 27 (1948 Ed.)] or the former Land

Settlement Ordinance [Cap. 28 (1948 Ed.)] or under any order of the Rajah affecting land;

“proprietor” includes the Government and any person entitled to an estate or interest in alienated land, whether such estate or interest is protected by registration or not, but does not include any person holding or deemed to hold land by licence from the Government;

“Register” means the Register kept under Part VII;

“Representative” means the person to whom a Certificate of

Representation has been issued, and includes a Probate Officer under the Administration of Estates Ordinance [Cap. 80 (1948

Ed.)] administering the estate of a deceased person where no grant of probate or letters of administration has been issued;

“reserve” means any area to be used or set aside for a public purpose, including but not limited to, the provision of roads, public parks, open space, drains, sewerage, water, electricity or

22

telecommunication facilities or such other purposes as the Majlis

Mesyuarat Kerajaan Negeri may from time to time direct;

[Ins. Cap. A50.]

“Reserved Land” means land⎯

reserved to the Government under section 38

or under the corresponding section of any Ordinance repealed by this Code*;

comprised within a National Park constituted under the National Parks and Nature Reserves Ordinance,

1998 [Cap. 27], or within a Forest Reserve, Protected

Forest or Communal Forest constituted under the Forests

Ordinance [Cap. 126 (1958 Ed.)];

occupied otherwise than under a document of title by the Federal or State Government or by any

Department or official in his official capacity of either such

Government; or

otherwise lawfully constituted or declared to be reserved land;

“rock material” means any of the substances specified in section 32(1)(d);

[Ins. Ord. No. 2/74.]

*NOTE :

The following Ordinances were repealed by the Land Code :

the Land Ordinance (Cap. 27, 1948 Ed.);

the Land Settlement Ordinance (Cap. 28, 1948 Ed.);

the Land (Classification) Ordinance (No. 19 of 1948);

the Dealings in Land (Validation) Ordinance (No. 11 of 1952).

“sale” includes any sublease, tenancy, gift or exchange and any agreement therefor, but does not include any devise or bequest of land nor any transfer or charge of any undivided share in any land;

[Ins. Cap. A50.]

23

“spectrum” shall have the same meaning as that assigned in section 6 of the Communication and Multimedia Act, 1988 [Act 588];

[Add. Cap. A200/2022]

“State land” means all land for which no document of title has been issued and all land which subsequent to the issue of a document of title may have been or may be forfeited or surrendered to or resumed by the Government, and includes⎯

the bed of any river, stream, lake or watercourse; and

the foreshore and beds of the sea within the boundaries of Sarawak as extended by the Sarawak

(Alteration of Boundaries) Order in Council, 1954* [Vol.

VI, p.1025];

“State Planning Authority” means the Authority constituted under section 228, and includes any person or body to whom the functions of the Authority have been delegated;

[Ins. Cap. A50.]

“system of personal law” means the system of personal law recognised by the general law of Sarawak as being applicable to the members of any racial, religious or other community because they are members of such community, and includes any rules or customary law of such system which may refer the determination of any matter to another system of personal law;

*

For definition of boundaries see the Sarawak (Definition of Boundaries) Order in Council, 1958 (G.N.S. 145/58) and see also the North Borneo and Sarawak

(Alteration of Boundaries) Order in Council, 1962 (G.N.S. 52/62).

“town land” and “suburban land” mean respectively land which has lawfully been declared to be such prior to the 1st day of January, 1958, or which is so declared pursuant to section 11;

and

24

“usufructuary rights” means the rights or privileges exercised or enjoyed by a native community over a native territorial domain to:

forage for food, including fishing and hunting;

enjoy such rights or privileges exercisable by a native community in a communal forest constituted under

Part III of the Forests Ordinance, 2015 [Cap. 71]; or

carry out such activities which are expressly authorized in the native communal title issued under section 6A(3) or a permit issued under section 10(3) but subject to the terms and conditions specified therein.

[Add. Cap. A179]

Administration