The Court of Appeal in Putrajaya today ordered that the trial of a RM1.05 billion civil suit filed by Syarikat Air Selangor Sdn Bhd (Syabas) against the Selangor government over water tariff adjustment be heard afresh before another High Court judge.

Justice Zaharah Ibrahim, chairing a three-member panel, granted an application made by Syabas’s counsel Gopal Sri Ram for the case to be heard de novo before another judge.

Sri Ram applied to have the trial, which went on for three days in September last year before Judicial Commissioner Abu Bakar Jais, to be heard afresh before another judge on the grounds that the judicial commissioner had expressed his views on the merits of the case when rejecting its (Syabas’s) application to amend its writ of summons.

Earlier, the panel had unanimously allowed Syabas’s appeal to amend its writ of summons to include CIMB Investment Bank Berhad as the second plaintiff in its civil suit.

The panel had set aside the High Court’s decision made on Feb 13, this year in dismissing Syabas’s application to amend its writ of summons to add CIMB Investment as co-plaintiff in the suit.

Justice Zaharah, however, granted an application made by lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, representing the Selangor government, to stay the trial at the High Court pending disposal of its (the Selangor government’s) application to obtain leave from the Federal Court to appeal against today’s decision.

Syabas filed the suit against the state government in 2010, stating that under the Dec 15, 2004 agreement between the federal government and Selangor government, it was given a 30-year concession to buy treated water from water treatment operators and to supply the treated water to the distribution areas, in accordance with the terms set out in the agreement.

Syabas said that on March 31, 2008, it submitted a review document to the Selangor government to support its request to increase the gazetted tariff of RM1.39 per cubic metre to the new agreed tariff of RM1.89 per cubic metre, for the third operations period from Jan 1, 2009 to Dec 31, 2011.

It claimed that the Selangor government had failed to inform Syabas whether it had agreed to increase the gazetted tariff to the agreed tariff.

Syabas is seeking a declaration that based on the actual assessment of the concession agreement dated Dec 15, 2004, there was a sum of RM1,054,208,382 owed to it by the Selangor government for the period between Jan 1, 2009 and March 31, 2011.

Syabas wants the Selangor government to pay the company that amount in water tariff adjustment.

The Selangor government, in its amended statement of defence, denied that Syabas was entitled to any compensation as claimed by the company.

- Bernama