Gunung Kanthan is one of the last 12 remaining limestone hills in the Kinta Valley National Geopark which is home to some endangered species of flora and fauna like the bent-toed geckos, snow-white orchids and tiny snails.
State government, the current chief is Saarani Mohamad.
And if you read the history of the company that wins this case, it has been on bad financial position for a long time and has changed ownership multiple times [1].
The company’s application was dismissed in October last year by judicial commissioner Bhupindar Singh. He said the monastery had demonstrated that they were not squatters and had a strong arguable defence to the eviction.
He also said there were triable issues as to whether they had occupied the land with the acquiescence of the company and state authorities.
Then, suddenly…
The Court of Appeal overturned his judgment.
A three-member bench of the Court of Appeal said the monastery had failed to raise any triable issue to prevent the grant of order.
The bench, comprising Justices Azizah Nawawi, See Mee Chun and Zaini Mazlan, later also rejected an application by the monastery for a stay of execution pending an appeal to the Federal Court.
However, the monastery’s management contested the application, contending that the company could only occupy a small portion of the land as the monastery’s monks have resided and occupied the area for more than 100 years.
They also asked for the application to be dismissed as the company had suppressed material evidence in their application by not disclosing to the court the fact that the land was occupied by the monastery.
Religious heritage site aside, a lot of amazing plants and animals are only found on a single limestone cliff or a few. Some stunning plants that are only known from one or two limestone hills in Malaysia are like Begonia amphioxus and Nepenthes campanulata. Just imagine all the species that were destroyed before they were even discovered.
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