An environmental group has claimed that a developer is contravening a court order against development being carried out at the Bukit Cherakah Forest Reserve.
As a result, Khazanah Alam Malaysia’s (Peka) legal team will be filing contempt of court proceedings against the developer by the end of this week.
On Aug 11, the Shah Alam High Court ordered a stay over the Selangor government’s plan to proceed with the degazettement of part of the forest reserve.
The order was granted pending disposal of a judicial review leave application by Peka and another environmental group, Shah Alam Community Forest Society (SACF), targeting the validity of the degazettement.
The court will hear the leave application on Sept 28.
In the event that the court grants leave, it would later set a date to hear submissions from lawyers of the opposing parties over the merits of the legal challenge.
Degazettement refers to the removal of legal protection against development in relation to a forest area.
Reports of development works
When contacted this afternoon, Peka president Damien Thaman Divean alleged that the group received reports from the public, who were going through the area, of the sound of manual labour and work going on there.
He claimed that there were video shots captured by aerial drones showing excavators breaking down stones on top of the hill.
“If any work is being carried out there (in Bukit Cerakah in spite of the court order), it amounts to contempt of court and action can be taken under the law,” the environmentalist contended.
When contacted, the group’s counsel Rajesh Nagarajan confirmed that the legal team is drafting the contempt application and will file it by the end of this week.
The legal challenge named the following as respondents: the state government, its executive councillors, state Forestry Department directors and the Petaling Land and Mines Department.
Backdating notification
The environmentalists seek to challenge the legality of the degazettement of 406ha of land in the forest reserve.
The applicants claimed that the degazettement decision was obsolete as it was made 22 years ago.
They also claimed it was unlawful for the state government to backdate the gazette notification - issued on May 5 this year by the state Forestry Department - referring back to the state executive council’s decision made in 2000.
In May, there was viral news about the statement on the degazetting of 406.22ha of the Bukit Cerakah Forest Reserve in Section U10, Shah Alam, which was allegedly done without a public hearing process in accordance with Section 11 of the Selangor State Forestry Act (EAPN) 1985.
EAPN was amended by the Selangor government in 2011.
In July, the state Forestry Department clarified that the May 5 gazette notification to degazette the Bukit Cerakah Forest Reserve is to complete the delisting process that stopped in 2006.
Environmentalists argued that the state government should have held a public inquiry per the National Forestry Act (Amendment) Enactment 2011.
On Sept 5, Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari told the media that the state government will carry out the degazettement of the forest reserve to avoid the risk of legal action by companies with interests in the property. - Mkini
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