The future hangs in the balance for 14 aggrieved landowners affected by a government bridge project in Kuching after they failed in their application for leave to appeal against eviction notices.

Kuching High Court judge Ian Chin yesterday dismissed an application by Tamby Ambun and 13 others from Kampung Bintawa Ulu for court orders to quash the government's decision to evict them from the site of the second bridge spanning Sungai Sarawak near Tanah Puteh on the outskirts of Kuching.

The court also disallowed the application to stay the eviction protest.

"I've to wait for my client's instructions before I could proceed to the next step," Dominique Ng Kim Ho, the legal counsel representing the 14 landowners, told malaysiakini today. He said the judge's decision is appealable.

The state attorney-general JC Fong was personally in court to make a 23-page submission arguing against allowing the landowners' application for leave to appeal, saying that although their native customary rights (NCR) were recognised, such rights had already been extinguished under the provisions of the Sarawak Land Code and that the appropriate compensations had been made.

Hear them out

Ng in his 17-page submission argued that it was his clients' constitutional right for an entitlement to a fair and adequate compensation, suggesting that the court should hear them out and not allow the eviction to take place until the final disposal of the case.

In the end, after hearing submissions from both parties, justice Chin rejected the landowners' application for leave to appeal against the eviction notices served on them recently.

Last week, a group of concerned Malay leaders appealed to the landowners not to block the bridge project and but acknowledged their rights to appeal for better compensations.

The landowners had been offered between RM20,000 and RM100,000 each to move out of the site into a new resettlement area at Kampung Rempangi just outside of Kuching.

They rejected the offer, saying the sums were not adequate considering the current costs of properties in the vicinity of Kampung Bintawa Ulu. About 40 other landowners from the same area had accepted the offers and moved out.