Amendments that would compel federal and state governments to get “advice” from a federal council on major infrastructure projects, is not legally binding, said the overseeing minister.

“It is not legally binding,” Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Noh Omar told the House multiple times when debating the Town and Country Planning (Amendments) Bill.

Noh, who was once a lawyer, also agreed with former judge Che Mohamad Zulkifly Jusoh (BN-Setiu), who said that it is up to the courts to decide whether or not a law was legally binding.

This was after the minister was bombarded with questions by opposition MPs, who wanted to know if there would be legal repercussions if the National Physical Planning Council (NPPC) were not adhered to.

Meanwhile, Noh also did not respond to a question by Tian Chua (PKR-Batu) on whether the NPPC - which is chaired by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak - would be legally responsible for the advice it gives.

Similarly he did not respond to Ngeh Khoo Ham (DAP-Beruas) who raised concerns on whether the requirement for advice would cause a delay in the implementation infrastructure projects.

Putrajaya is seeking to add a new Section 20B to the act, which will compel both federal and state governments, except Sabah and Sarawak, to obtain "advice" on infrastructure projects from a "council".

These infrastructure projects include coastal reclamation, airports, seaports, highways, dams, and toxic waste disposal sites, as well as any infrastructure the "council" deem to be of national interest.

Besides this, the amendments also sought to remove Section 21A(1A) which provides discretionary powers to state governments in requiring a social impact assessments (SIA) on major infrastructure projects.

Noh said this would ensure that SIAs are conducted on projects that would affect the public.

The bill was passed after a voice vote, but barely made it through the committee stage after the opposition forced a bloc vote, much to the surprise of Deputy Speaker Ismail Mohamad Said.

A bloc vote usually lasts for just about five minutes. However for this bill, the bloc vote results were only announced more than 10 minutes after the bell calling for a vote finished ringing.

During that 10 minutes, several lawmakers were spotted rushing in to the House.

The final result for the bloc vote was 63 votes in favour, and 51 against.

The amendments were then passed with a voice vote.