Chronology of Bukit Cherakah Forest Corridor Judicial Review

Aug 15, 2022

In : #saveshahalamforest, Chronology, Judicial Review, Timeline

On 4th Aug 2022, SACF Society and PEKA Malaysia filed a joint judicial review application against the Selangor government for the unlawful degazettement of 1,003 acres of the Bukit Cherakah Forest Reserve which includes the Shah Alam Community Forest. The degazettement was published on 20th May 2022 and BACKDATED 22 YEARS to take effect on 20th Nov 2000.

We seek to challenge the legitimacy of this document which has denied the local community the right to participate in a public inquiry as required in Section 11 of Selangor’s National Forestry Act (Adoption) (2011 Amendment) Enactment 1985.

You can help us by donating to our legal fund via the QR Code here and share about Shah Alam Community Forest with your friends and family. For latest news about the ongoing judicial review, click here.

Persatuan Rimba Komuniti Shah Alam

Maybank 5128 4853 2026

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The following explains how the Bukit Cherakah Forest Reserve shrunk from 23,826 acres to less than 6,200 acres today:

May 1909

Forest constituted as Bukit Cherakah Forest Reserve (G.N. 278 published in the Selangor Government Gazette on 21st May 1909)

2000

About 40 acres of the forest reserve were logged/clearfelled to make way for about 2.3 km of the Persiaran Mokhtar Dahari road.

2002

About 10 acres of the forest reserve were logged/clearfelled for a 250m access road from Persiaran Mokhtar Dahari to Bukit Bayu township.

2004

About 150 acres of the forest reserve were logged/clearfelled for the Alam Budiman township.

Sept 2006

The Pelan Warta (excisement plan) No.1443 which included SACF land was drafted. Note that this was just a plan and not an official degazettement.

2018

About 10 acres of the forest reserve allocated to PKNS were logged/clearfelled for a 950m road connecting the Alam Budiman township and Setia Alam.

2020

About 50 acres of the forest reserve were logged/clearfelled for a mixed development by Restu Mantap Sdn Bhd beside Pedana Heights.

DRT 2035

MBSA plans to build a road and cemetery in SACF (DRT 2035).

PKNS plans to log/clear 70% of their land in SACF for their Bandar Sierra Alam mixed development.

20 May 2022

Degazettement of forest indicated in Pelan Warta No.1443 (Sept 2006) is published and backdated to 20 Nov 2000 (G.N. 1645).

04 Aug 2022

PEKA Malaysia and Persatuan Rimba Komuniti Shah Alam (SACF Society) filed leave for Judicial Review application through Messrs. Raj & Sach Solicitors.

11 Aug 2022

Interim injunction/stay of disputed area granted by court with immediate effect.

28 Sep 2022

Court hearing of leave application for a judicial review

17 Oct 2022

New date set for court hearing of leave of application for the judicial review, due to involvement of PKNS and Restu Mantap as interveners.

17th Nov 2022

Application for Judicial Review has been rejected by the Shah Alam High Court. We do not know the reason for this rejection as it will only be revealed if we submit an appeal.

After discussion with our lawyer, SACF Society and PEKA Malaysia have decided to appeal against the rejection. The appeal will be heard by a different judge. We have filed for an appeal which will be heard after the case management session on 24th May 2023.

10 Mar 2023

Applied for an interim preservation to protect the forest from further damage while the judicial review appeal is being processed. The hearing date for this interim preservation application has been set on 10th May 2023.

10th May 2023

Our application for interim preservation was concluded on 10th May 2023. Unfortunately the motion was dismissed, reason given “there are no special circumstances that warrants the grant of an interim preservation order.”

26th May 2023

On 26th May 2023, hearing of our appeal is fixed on 14.9.2023 at the Palace of Justice in Putrajaya.

14th Sept 2023

Our appeal against the dismissal of our Judicial Review application was heard at the Palace of Justice in Putrajaya. The decision is scheduled to be delivered on 23rd Nov 2023.

11th October 2023

Pls be informed that the decision for our appeal on 23.11.2023 has been rescheduled by the Court of Appeal from physical to a decision via Zoom.

23rd November 2023

The decision for the appeal hearing has been postponed as the court needs more time to deliberate. A new date for decision will be fixed by court later.

19th June 2024

The hearing date of our Federal Court Appeal for the Application of Judicial Review has been set on 11th July 2024. We will update the venue info when we get it.
We have also filed an application for interim injunction to preserve SACF while the court case is ongoing. We will keep you updated on the outcome.

13th March 2025

1. Our Federal Court hearing was finally held on 9th Sept 2024. After almost 3 hours in the courtroom, we were given leave to proceed to the Federal Court appeal hearing proper. This win is an affirmation of the gravity of our judicial review application for, as one of the judges acknowledged, “public importance”. However our application for interim preservation of the forest area has been dismissed with no reason given. This means that the forest continues to be vulnerable to deforestation by developers. We hope that PKNS and MBSA will respect the public’s interest and stop deforesting while this legal case is still ongoing.
2. We are still waiting for the date of our Federal Court appeal hearing. We were told that the date assignment is pending the release of the grounds of judgement (GOJ) from the Court of Appeal judges who dismissed our case in January 2024. Until now, we have yet to be given this critical document despite many reminders and follow-ups from our lawyer. It is unusual for the GOJ to be pending so long (more than one year!). We have written in to the Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun on 20th January 2025 to intervene in this process but have not gotten a response so far.