The planned teardown of Kuala Lumpur’s first shopping mall is well underway, but 39 of the strata owners and commercial tenents of Ampang Park have filed an application for a judicial review, to halt the progress of Mass Rapid Transit’s (MRT) acquisition of the land on which it sits.
The application was submitted at the Kuala Lumpur High Court Registrar’s Office this morning, by law firm Messrs Jason Ng & Partners. The respondents are listed as the Federeal Territories Ministry, who approved the land deal; the Federal Government; the Federal Territories Lands and Mines director; and the and Federal Territories Land administrator.
Bernama reports that “the strata owners and tenants are seeking a declaration that the Form D dated Aug 17, 2015 and the Form E dated Oct 22, 2015 of the Land Acquisition Act 1960 issued by the respondents were unconstitutional, unlawful, illegal, null and void.
“They are also seeking a certiorari order to revoke the approval.”
Ampang Park Petty Traders Welfare Association deputy chair Wan Kamal Izuddin Wan Kassim told reporters today that most commercial owners in Ampang Park had been on board with MRT’s plan to route across their area, but balked at the decision to have the shopping mall, which opened in 1973, torn down.
“We hope the MRT management will walk their talk that the Ampang Park shopping centre would not be demolished. There is no reason to demolish the first shopping centre in Malaysia,” he said.
