The Court of Appeal has set Friday to hear an application from three Kuantan residents for an interim stay of the Kuantan High Court refusal to temporarily suspend the Lynas Advanced Material Plant (Lamp) licence to operate its rare-earth processing plant in Gebeng.

The residents sought the interim stay from the Court of Appeal, pending their appeal to the latter against the Kuantan High Court’s Nov 8 decision to disallow their application to temporarily stay the temporary operating licence (TOL), until their judicial review application was heard and disposed of, by the high court.

Counsel Gene Vendargon, appearing for the residents, said the Court of Appeal registry fixed the date today, following their interim stay application filed under Section 44 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964 on Nov 29, which was attached together with a certificate of urgency.

He said he received today the sealed copy of the notice of motion and affidavit-in-support from the Court of Appeal registry.

The residents - Tan Bun Teet, 64, Syed Talib Syed Sulaiman, 60, and Hasimah Ramli, 44 - filed their notice of appeal (against the Kuantan High Court decision) on Nov 9 this year.

The hearing of the judicial review application to quash the decision of the Atomic Energy Licensing Board and the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry to issue TOL to Lamp, was fixed on Feb 5, before the Kuantan High Court.

On Nov 8, High Court judge Mariana Yahya dismissed the residents’ application for stay of the TOL, pending disposal of their judicial review applications.

She delivered her decision on that day after reserving it (her decision) for about a month, upon hearing submissions by the parties in the suit on the residents' application for a stay order on the TOL.

Mariana had also granted an interim stay on the TOL to the residents, which expired after she delivered her decision on the residents’ stay application on Nov 8.

- Bernama