KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 22— The Shah Alam High Court today struck out Puncak Niaga’s RM14 billion lawsuit against the Selangor state government and Selangor Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali over the state’s water restructuring deal.
Azmin’s lawyer Latheefa Koya told Malay Mail High Court judge Datuk Akhtar Tahir struck out the suit — which also named former Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim as a defendant — on grounds that the statement of claims by the plaintiffs was not consistent.
“For example, at one part, they said the MBs had acted in their personal interest, and then they said the MBs acted as such because it is the Pakatan Rakyat pledge. So the judge struck the suit out on grounds that the statement of claims was faulty,” she said.
The court will also decide on a counter claim filed by Azmin against Puncak Niaga on March 13, Latheefa said.
Puncak Niaga, which used to be the state’s water concession holders, filed the lawsuit in November last year, some three years after a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between Putrajaya and the state government saw the state take over all four water concessionaires in Selangor.
In the exercise, the state took over Puncak Niaga assets worth over RM6 billion.
In the suit filed last year, Puncak Niaga among others claimed that Khalid and Azmin had abused their power by threatening to cause the Federal Government to invoke the Water Services Industry Act 2006 to force the takeover of the water services industry in Selangor.
The company was claiming both general damages and also loss of business opportunities.
