Attempts by two landowners from Rakiraki to get compensation and have access to all lease titles on a land being used by the Public Works Department has been dismissed by the Lautoka High Court.
The Public Works Department has been in occupation of the certain piece of land and government has been sourcing water from various water catchments on the land for public supply and has also built on the land a depot which includes a hospital, a police station and also housing facilities for civil servants.
Josua Naimila and Epeli Bukadogo, who are trustees of the Mataqali Draqara had taken legal action against the Native Land Trust Board, the CEO of PWD and the Attorney General's Office claiming that they had suffered loss and damages and also claimed that rental payment for government use of the land is always delayed.
On many occasions, they have requested the defendants to provide an account of payments made but to no avail.
The two sought declarations from the court which included that they be paid any monies owed and that they were entitled to copies of all lease documents over the water catchment area and other utilities.
The State then made submissions to strike out the case and submitted that the two men may indeed be the registered native owners of the land in question but the protective scheme of the NLTB Act prevents native owners such as the plaintiffs from entering into any agreement directly with any other party with a view to alienating or disposing of native land in favour of that other party.
It was submitted that this is because the control of native lands is vested absolutely in the Native Land Trust Board.
The State says the two have no course of action.
Master of the High Court Anare Tuilevuka dismissed the claims by the two men and stated that their claim had no reasonable cause of action.
The two landowners will now have to pay $350 to the state within 21 days.
Story by: Vijay Narayan
