Apex court rejects DBKL’s bid to reinstate Taman Rimba Kiara proposal

PUTRAJAYA – The Federal Court has dismissed the appeal by Kuala Lumpur City Hall to reinstate the Taman Rimba Kiara development mega project.

Judge Datuk Nallini Pathmanathan in the unanimous decision said the appeal did not have merit.

She added that the development order issued had contravened the Federal Territories Act (FT Act) as well as the Kuala Lumpur Structure Plan 2020.

“It is incumbent upon the court to protect the public interest when land allocated for public space is removed from public use and utilised for private ownership, that too without the knowledge of the public.

“We have found, for the reasons stated in our full grounds of judgment, that the FT Act and the Kuala Lumpur Structure Plan 2020 have been contravened by the issuance of the impugned development order. It is therefore null and void and was correctly quashed by the Court of Appeal,” said Nallini.

She also stated that the Kuala Lumpur mayor was not forthcoming with reasons why it had acted in granting the development order, which contravened the Kuala Lumpur Structure Plan 2020.

“The appellants submit that the Kuala Lumpur Structure Plan 2020 comprises mere policy that has no force of law. We found in our full grounds of judgment that the Kuala Lumpur Structure Plan 2020 as a statutory development plan does have the force of law and is binding.

“To give development plans their own force of law is to ensure that planning in the Federal Territory is achieved pursuant to cohesive planning principles. Parliament, by embedding into the FT Act a mandatory process of public participation, ensures the inclusion of the public’s views on the proposed plan.

“Once gazetted, there is no room for extraneous matters to be inserted at will, nor for development planning on an inconsistent and piecemeal basis.”

Nallini added that the public ought to be given reasons by the local authority for the decision to depart from the statutory development plan.

“It is only if reasons are given that interested parties with locus standi can ascertain whether that decision was lawfully made.

“If they consider that it was not, they can then challenge that decision. This is a common law duty in the interest of fairness, even where such a duty to give reasons is not expressly stipulated in the FT Act.

“The question then arises as to when such reasons ought to be given. We have explained at length in our full grounds of judgment that having regard to the purpose of the FT Act, such reasons ought to be given at the time of the decision.

“The public ought not to have to wait until they file legal proceedings for the authority to then give reasons in the course of the legal proceedings.”

Sitting in the apex court bench today along with Nallini were Chief Judge of Malaya Datuk Zabidin Diah and Datuk Rhodzariah Bujang.

The Taman Rimba Kiara case, now in its eighth year, involved a legal challenge against a development project consisting of nine apartment blocks. 

In 2018, the residents lost the case in the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

Part of the objection is due to the demolishing of longhouses to make way for the project in one of the city’s last green lungs.

Registered land proprietor Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan previously said the scaled-down version of the project would not encroach into the boundaries of the public park.

In 2021, the Court of Appeal declared the Taman Rimba Kiara development order granted by DBKL null and void after various parties, including the Taman Tun Dr Ismail Residents’ Association, initiated a judicial review application. – The Vibes, April 18, 2023