Court allows RAs in MBPJ to impose boom gate rule

 

The Court of Appeal in Putrajaya yesterday ruled that a residents’ association (RA) within the Petaling Jaya City Council (MBPJ) can impose a condition requiring non-paying members living in the residential area to operate the boom gates themselves without the assistance of security guards.

A three-member panel of judges, Justices Has Zanah Mehat, See Mee Chun and Che Mohd Ruzima, allowed an appeal brought by Chow Hau Mun, the chairperson of Parkville RA, to overturn the High Court’s decision.

The panel allowed the RA’s judicial review to quash MBPJ’s decision to reject the RA’s application to impose the condition that non-paying owners and residents or non-members of the association must operate the boom gates by themselves.

In the court’s decision, Has Zanah said the condition was reasonable and was in line with a Federal Court ruling in the case of Au Kean Hoe v D’Villa Equestrian, where the Federal Court held that the construction of a guardhouse and boom gates did not amount to an “obstruction” under Section 46(1)(a) of the Street, Drainage, and Building Act 1974.

The court ordered MBPJ to pay RM8,000 in legal costs to Parkville RA.

One of Chow’s lawyers, A Surendra Ananth, when contacted by Bernama, confirmed the Court of Appeal’s decision, which was delivered online yesterday.

Lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sarwar also represented Chow while lawyer Yatiswara Ramachandran appeared for MBPJ.

Chow filed for a judicial review on behalf of Parkville RA seeking, among others, a declaration that the RA is entitled to impose a rule that non-paying owners and residents or non-members of the association in the residential area would operate the boom gates themselves, without the assistance of security guards.

This was after MBPJ, on March 30, 2021, rejected the association’s application for permission to impose the condition.

In July last year, the High Court in Shah Alam dismissed the judicial review and ruled that MBPJ’s decision not to allow the association to impose the condition was not illegal, irrational or unreasonable.

- Bernama