Our much loved Shah Alam Community Forest was highlighted by Malaysia’s English daily, Free Malaysia Today on 5th August 2022.
PETALING JAYA: Two environmental NGOs have filed an application for judicial review of the Selangor government’s degazettement of a piece of land in a forest reserve said to be the size of approximately a thousand football fields.
Lim Teck Wyn of the Shah Alam Community Forest Society (SACF) and Damien Thaman Divean of Khazanah Alam Malaysia (Peka) filed the application at the Shah Alam High Court yesterday.
They named the Selangor government, its executive councillors, the directors of the state forestry department and the Petaling land and mines department as the respondents.
The two NGOs, represented by lawyers Rajesh Nagarajan and Sachpreetraj Singh Sohanpal, are challenging the legality of the degazettement of the land covering 406ha at the Bukit Cherakah Forest Reserve.
According to the application sighted by FMT, the NGOs said the decision to degazette the area was made 22 years ago and was therefore “stale”.
They argued that it was also illegal for the state government to “backdate” the gazette notification issued on May 5 this year by the Selangor forestry department to refer to the decision of the state executive council in 2000.
They also said the state government should have held a public inquiry, as stipulated under the National Forestry Act (Amendment) Enactment 2011.
Last month, SACF slammed the Selangor government’s decision to take over land at Bukit Cherakah Forest Reserve, saying it was made without prior notice.
It accused the state government of acting unlawfully in excising the land without prior notice and a public inquiry, and without providing a replacement piece of land.
Rajesh told FMT that backdating the excision of the land was illegal, adding that such matters were frowned upon in law and could only be done in limited circumstances by Parliament.
“What was done by the Selangor government was both repugnant and abhorrent,” he alleged.
The hearing at the Shah Alam High Court has been fixed for next Thursday before judge Shahnaz Sulaiman.
Read more on Free Malaysia Today here.
