The Shah Alam High Court will decide tomorrow whether the Kajang Municipal Council's (MPKj) decision to reclaim the site of a building owned by MCA should be subject to judicial review.

The decision was to have been delivered today by Judge Hinshawati Shariff, but has been postponed to tomorrow as she is on emergency leave.

The issue began in September 2008, when MPKj issued a quit notice to MCA in relation to a building that it owned in Batu 11, Cheras, as, according to the council, it was illegally constructed on state land.

The building currently houses an MCA service centre, community centre, beauty salon, mini post-office and a driving school.

A second notice was then sent on Feb 24 last year to the MCA office in the building, with a copy of the notice placed on the door, informing the management that the building was slated for demolition to make way for a car park.

Following what it said was the lack of evidence to support MCA’s claim on the building, MPKj claimed possession of the building on March 5 and changed the padlocks on the front door.

NONE In response to these actions, then MCA secretary-general Wong Foon Meng ( left) filed an application for judicial review against MPKj on April 7 last year.

Wong claimed that the party had been occupying the land since 1981 with the permission of the Hulu Langat district council.

According to MPKj councillor Lee Kee Hiong, a survey conducted by the council in September 2008 found there were 50 buildings and containers built on state land coming within its jurisdiction.

“These buildings belong to Umno, MCA and MIC,” she asserted when contacted today.

Even at the present moment, she added, MCA is illegally constructing another building on state land in Hulu Langat.

Eric Tan, the lawyer for MPKj, said this is the first time that a BN component party faces losing property to a local government.

In a separate, but similar, situation, the Selayang Municipal Council (MPS) has also taken action against MCA for yet another building that MPS claims was built on state land.

In 2008, said councillor A Murugeshu, MPS reclaimed the land and building occupied by MCA and made it into a community centre.

MCA then responded, however, by changing the locks and signboards of the building.

 

“Until today, we have been trying to get our hall back,” said Murugeshu.