Olympian gets to keep her 3 cats in condo

 High Court rules in favour of Noraseela Khalid, says JMB's blanket ban on pets is invalid and unenforceable.

The Shah Alam High Court had been told in an affidacit by ex-hurdler Noraseela Khalid that her three vaccinated cats were kept indoors and had never caused any nuisance, danger or disturbance to other residents.

PETALING JAYA:

Olympian Noraseela Khalid has won the right to keep her cats in her condominium after successfully challenging a blanket pet ban imposed by its joint management body (JMB).

Noraseela’s lawyer, Rajesh Nagarajan, said the Shah Alam High Court ruled today that the JMB of Shang Villa Condominium could not rely on its house rules to impose an unconditional ban on keeping pets in residential units.

The court ruled that the JMB could not use House Rule 9.0 to bar Noraseela from keeping her three cats in her residential unit, rendering the rule unenforceable.

It acknowledged that By-law 14 of the Strata Management (Maintenance and Management) Regulations 2015 allows enforcement action over the keeping of pets and animals in strata developments, but said such action must be supported by evidence.

The court found that there was insufficient evidence to justify the JMB’s ban on Noraseela’s cats.

Nagarajan said many residents of strata developments face house rules that prohibit pets entirely.

He said the ruling made clear that such rules should not supersede federal law.

“Legitimate complaints about animals must be addressed, and this decision does not stand in the way of that. But management must act on evidence, not on the presumption that every pet is a nuisance,” he said.

Noraseela previously said in an affidavit that she kept her three vaccinated cats indoors and that they had never caused any nuisance, danger or disturbance to other residents.

The affidavit further contended that House Rule 9.0 violated her constitutional rights, including Article 8 on equality before the law and proportionality, and Article 13 on protection of property, as the ban was applied indiscriminately without evidence of nuisance or harm. - FMT