KUCHING, May 22 — A Bill to restructure the Native Court that will raise it to be on par with the civil and Shariah courts will be tabled in the Sarawak State Assembly once the transformation master plan has been approved by the state Cabinet, Minister in the Premier’s Department (Native Laws and Customs) Datuk John Sikie Tayai said today.

He said the final report on the master plan had been approved by a steering committee chaired by Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah in September last year.

"At this juncture, we are now in the process of tabling the master plan to the state Cabinet for approval and implementation,” Sikie said in his winding speech in the Sarawak State Assembly.

He said the current Native Court is a unit under the Premier’s Department, with the office of the Chief Registrar still an integral part of the state administration.

He told the State Assembly that out of the total 17,003 registered cases, 10,583 cases or 63 per cent have been settled by the Native Court as of April 30 this year.

"This is an achievement of 720 additional cases within the last one year and the settlement of the cases at the District and Resident Native Court is mainly through the circuit contract magistrates,” he said.

He added the court is making every effort to settle the remaining 6,420 outstanding cases, adding that cases registered before 2014 and those involving land compensation are given priority.

He said 40 cases involving over RM3 million in compensation had been settled while 186 others involving over RM8.5 million are still outstanding.

Sikie said the land compensation cases are given priority by the Native Courts over other cases to ensure that development projects approved by the state government are not held up because of the disputes over land compensation.