KUALA LUMPUR, Apr 18 — The SMK Convent Bukit Nanas’ judicial review application to challenge the government’s decision to not extend the school’s land lease will be heard tomorrow by the High Court here, The Edge Markets reported today.
Convent Bukit Nanas, a school established in 1899 is located along Jalan Bukit Nanas here, and as the school is seeking a stay against the authorities’ decision, its land lease is due to expire on September 6 this year.
The hearing tomorrow will decide whether Convent Bukit Nanas’ request for leave or permission of the High Court to ensure the school’s judicial review application is not frivolous, vexatious or an abuse of court process.
The judicial review application document sighted by the financial news outlet also stated that the High Court will hear the full merits of the judicial review application another day, according to the judicial review application document filed by law firm Kevin & Co on behalf of the Lady Superior of the Society of Saint Maur, which is the corporate entity operating Convent Bukit Nanas.
According to the document, law firm Kevin & Co had on April 7, 2021 filed the judicial review application which named the Federal Territories Lands and Mines director as the sole respondent.
The document indicated that Convent Bukit Nanas, which wrote in to the Lands and Mines office on October 4, 2017 to seek an extension of the land lease, had received the Lands and Mines office’s reply on December 18, 2020 that the lease would not be renewed.
The purpose of the judicial review, as stated in the document, is an application to seek among others, a certiorari order to quash the decision by the Lands and Mines office which refused to extend the land lease and a mandamus to compel the Federal Territories Lands and Mines director to revoke the land lease non-renewal letter dated December 18, 2020.
According to the document, the judicial review application also sought other relief deemed fit by the court.
All-girls school Convent Bukit Nanas, which is widely known as CBN, was established in 1899 and is among one of the oldest schools in Malaysia.
As reported, Chua Siu Yan, who is Lady Superior of the Society of Saint Maur, claimed that the Lands and Mines office, in its decision to not renew the land lease, has failed to consider the impact of its decision on the school’s students and teachers.
Chua also claimed that the Lands and Mines office had acted unreasonably, unfairly, irrationally and disproportionately in not considering the school’s application for the land lease renewal.
According to Chua, she had in 2017 wrote a letter to the Lands and Mines office to seek the land lease extension, however, she claimed that there was no reply from the latter.
Following her letter in 2017, Chua claimed that on February 28, 2020, she wrote another letter to the Lands and Mines office to inquire about the status of the land lease renewal application, upon obtaining a support letter from the Education Ministry.
She claimed that yet again, there was no response from the Lands and Mines office and that she had followed-up on the matter in July 2020, only to be told that the Lands and Mines office was in the final stages of considering the application.
According to Chua, she only found out on January 8, 2021 about the Lands and Mines office’s decision to not renew the school’s land lease.
She claimed she had tried to meet officials of the Lands and Mines office but to no avail.
