KK court strikes out Idris Hydraulic’s bid for judicial review of timber licence cancellation

KOTA KINABALU: The High Court here has struck out a judicial review application by a public-listed company against the Sabah government over the cancellation of its timber concession licences.

Justice Leonard David Shim made the ruling on Wednesday (Aug 2) in dismissing the application by Idris Hydraulic (M) Sdn Bhd over the cancellation of its Sustainable Forest Management Licence (SFMLA) in respect of Forest Management Units 8 and 13 (FMU 8 and 13).

The company had named Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor and the state government as respondents.

FMUs 8 and 13 consist of a timber area of some 238,000ha.

In his 78-page grounds of decision, Justice Shim ruled that Hajiji had acted lawfully and within the limits of his powers under section 24A of the Forest Enactment 1968 to cancel Idris Hydraulic’s SFMLA on grounds of public interest.

In his conclusion, the judge said the court held that, after perusing the application for judicial review, statutory statement, affidavits and the submissions filed by both parties, “the applicant had failed to prove that the impugned cancellation of the said SFMLA in the public interest is invalid on grounds of illegality, irrationality or proportionality.”

“Neither does the court find that the respondents had taken into consideration irrelevant matters or failed to consider relevant matters in the issuance of the said notices.

“In the premises, the said letter of cancellation which is issued in accordance with the law is valid,” he said.

The court struck out the substantive application for judicial review with costs of RM40,000 to be paid by the applicant to the respondents, subject to an allocatur fee.

Lawyer Tengku Datuk Fuad Tengku Ahmad, who represented Hajiji and the state government, said the Chief Minister, after hearing Idris Hydraulic’s representations, correctly decided that it was not in the public interest, among others, for the company to be owned by not one but two wound-up shareholders.

“The result of Idris Hydraulic being owned by insolvent parent companies is that it – along with the SFMLA – will be sold off to the highest bidder.

“Consequently, the state government will then lose control over who manages, exploits and develops Sabah’s natural forest resources – a situation which is clearly not in the public interest.

“Further, Idris Hydraulic had failed for the past 13 years or so to obtain an approved Forest Management Plan and an egregious failure of this magnitude is contrary to the public interest,” Fuad said.

Idris Hydraulic was represented by Peter Lee Kong Chung.