The Tanjung Bunga Residents Association has been thwarted in its legal challenge against the state government’s gazetting of Tanjung Bunga as a primary corridor for development instead of a secondary corridor.
TBRA had gone to the High Court this morning to see if the judge thought its lawsuit merited a full court hearing or if it was frivolous, in which case its suit would have been thrown out.
In the event, the suit was dismissed on technical grounds. Apparently the TBRA should have sought a judicial review within 40 days of the gazetting in 2007.
The TBRA has not yet decided whether to appeal. It also has to consider the legal costs in mounting a sustained challenge.
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TBRA did not fail the challenge on legal merits, the High Court did not even look into the MERITS OF THE CASE, under MPPP/ Developer/Federal Consortia and /or State pressure, have acquiesced to throw out the case on technical grounds….a common way to get rid of sticky cases where the people’s rights can be easily BLOCKED! Oldest trick in the book! The world of expats are watching how the Malaysian Federal and State Governments and the Malaysian Judiciary circumvent citizens’ rights in Penang!
THE STAR “Residents’ suit struck out” Thursday May 5, 2011 By K. KASTURI DEWI [email protected] GEORGE TOWN: Tanjung Bungah residents, who are opposing an impending development plan within their area, lost their bid to change the proposed plan under the Penang Structure Plan 2020. High Court judge Justice Yaacob Md Sam allowed an application by the defendants — the state government, the Town and Country Planning Department director and the state Planning Committee — to strike out the suit brought by the Tanjung Bungah Residents Association (TBRA). “In his ruling, Yaacob held that the TBRA did not commence the right… Read more »
Does this mean that Tanjung Bunga will eventually lose its soul to development just like Gurney Drive?
This is so great. When lost, just sue the lawyer? Calling all lawyers: please question all clients and don’t help people with this stupid mentality!!!
“TBRA should have sought a judicial review within 40 days of the gazetting in 2007.” – I don’t think this is correct. The written statement in the plan was clear that Tanjong Bunga is in the secondary corridor when the plan was gazetted. The issue is that the State Exco “quietly” amended or reinterpreted the plan after TBRA complained.
I’m not sure if this helps – but all local plans and structure plans are subservient to the National Physical Plan and National Urbanisation Policy in the event of any discrepancy between those documents.
Maybe TBRA should look into that as well?
Read this article for the arguments. http://www.thenutgraph.com/how-mbpj-flouts-the-law/
It seems like they’ve been very poorly advised if they needed to go to the High Court to have the 40-day limit pointed out.
We’ve seen worse.
I’ve heard of some omissions that beg you to sue the lawyer as well. With a proliferation of law degrees on offer from institutions that even God himself hasn’t heard of, what kind of legal expertise should one expect?
There was a time when lawyers were held in some esteem, but like most other professions, it’s who’s counting his money until his face turns green that counts.