KUALA LUMPUR – The Court of Appeal has upheld the high court decision to deny leave for a judicial review to challenge the Selangor government’s degazettement of Bukit Cherakah as a forest reserve.
In delivering the court’s decision, judge Datuk Azizah Nawawi said the application to review the degazettement decision made in 2000 “is clearly out of time and this goes to the issue of jurisdiction”.
The Selangor exco decision to degazette was made on November 20, 2000.
She said the review application should be filed promptly and within three months from the date when the grounds of the application first arose or when the decision was first told to the appellants.
“Even if the appellants have no knowledge of the impugn decision made in year 2000, the grounds of the application would have arisen when parts of the said lands were alienated to the other parties between 2001 and 2016, respectively.
“Thereafter, the said parties have developed the said land into housing estates, including Taman Budiman and the Universiti Teknologi Mara, UiTM (Kampus Puncak Perdana).”
The two other judges were Datuk Azimah Omar and Datuk Wong Kian Kheong.
The appeal against the high court decision on November 17 was filed on May 5 by Shah Alam Community Forest Society and Pertubuhan Pelindung Khazanah Alam Malaysia, the assistant state legal adviser Khairul Nizam Abu Bakar appearing for the Selangor government, the state executive council, the state Forestry Department director, and the Petaling Land and Mines Department, as well as the counsels for two companies and the state Development Corporation (PKNS).
The two NGOs claimed that it was illegal for the Selangor government to backdate a gazette, notifying that a decision had been made on the degazettement on November 20, 2000.
They had named the Selangor government, the state executive council, the state Forestry Department director, the Petaling Land and Mines Department, YCH Development Sdn Bhd, PKNS, and Restu Mantap Sdn Bhd as respondents in the judicial review. – January 24, 2024