Malaysia’s Court of Appeal dismissed the legal case jointly filed by 39 strata owners of Ampang Park Shopping Centre against MRT Corporation and other government agencies for the compulsory acquisition of their units.
The plaintiffs’ properties were mandatorily bought to make way for the Ampang Park station of the Klang Valley Mass Rapid Transit (MRT). But they claim the purchase, under the Land Acquisition Act of 1960, was not done in accordance with the law.
However, the Court of Appeal ruled on Wednesday that the contentions of the 39 strata owners have no merit. Thus, it upheld the ruling handed down by the Kuala Lumpur High Court last June.
“It stands to reason that although the MRT line would run underground substantially if not totally, work would still have to commence and proceed from above ground,” said lead Justice Datuk Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim.
Notably, the strata owners made an appeal against the High Court’s dismissal of their suit to question the lawfulness of the land acquisition, after the High Court threw out their case, deeming that the purchase was done legally.
Moreover, the Court of Appeal said there was no bad intention on the part of the respondents when they decided to mandatorily acquire the properties. “Therefore, having considered the submission by both counsels, we unanimously feel that there are no merits in the contention of the appellants.”
As such, Abang Iskandar instructed the appellants to pay a total of RM70,000 to the respondents. RM40,000 will go to MRT Corp, while RM30,000 will be given to the Federal Territories Land administrator and Federal Territories Land and Mines director.
The appeal, filed on 8 January 2017, initially included the Federal Territories Ministry and the Malaysian government as respondents. But the plaintiffs subsequently excluded the two as defendants from the judicial review application on 20 January.
Last April, the High Court permitted MRT’s application to be named as a respondent in the case.
Image sourced from The Star Online
Diane Foo Eu Lynn, Senior Content Specialist at PropertyGuru, edited this story. To contact her about this or other stories email diane@propertyguru.com.my
