Section 8

a person who is not a native of Sarawak may not acquire any rights or privileges whatever over any Native Area

Land, Native Customary Land or Interior Area Land;

any agreement, purporting to transfer or confer any such rights or privileges or which would result in such person enjoying any such right or privilege, shall be deemed to have been entered into for an illegal consideration; and, in particular but without prejudice to paragraph (d), any consideration which shall have been paid or furnished shall not be recoverable in any court nor shall any relief be afforded to any person claiming that any consideration promised has not been paid or furnished;

any person purporting to enter into an agreement to which paragraph (b) applies shall be guilty of an offence:

Penalty, a fine of one thousand ringgit and, in the case of a native offender, an additional fine of a sum equivalent to the value of any consideration which the court is satisfied has been received by that native offender or has been received by another person on his behalf or by his direction;

in any case in which a person is convicted of an offence under paragraph (b), the court may, if there is reason to believe that such person did not appreciate he was contravening paragraph (a) and had no reason to believe he was entering into a prohibited transaction, impose no fine and may also, if it has imposed an additional fine on a native offender and this paragraph applies to the non-native offender, order the payment to such non-native offender out of such fine of such sum by way of compensation to the non-native offender as it may deem fit in all the circumstances;

subject as aforesaid and to any remedy for the recovery of any fine imposed, the rights and privileges of any native shall not be adversely affected by any agreement to which paragraph

applies;

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upon any conviction of an offence under paragraph (c), the court shall have power to order the eviction of any person, being a non-native or a person claiming under a non-native in possession or occupation of any land in relation to which the offence was committed, and may for such purpose by warrant addressed to any police officer order him to remove any such person as aforesaid;

a complaint of an offence under paragraph (c) may be made by a District Officer or a Superintendent or by any person generally or specially authorized in that behalf by the Public

Prosecutor, but may not be made by any other person; and

notwithstanding anything in any other written law, a court of a Magistrate of the First Class* may exercise without any limitation the jurisdiction conferred on the court by this section.

Acquisition of land by non-natives