SMK Convent Bukit Nanas drops lawsuit, as land lease officially extended for 60 years

KUALA LUMPUR, June 3 — The operator of 122-year-old school SMK Convent Bukit Nanas (CBN) has officially discontinued its lawsuit against the Federal Territories Land and Mines Office (PTGWP), after the latter officially wrote to extend the land lease for the school for another 60 years.

Damien Chan, the lawyer acting for the school board’s representative Lady Superior of the Society of Saint Maur, confirmed receiving the May 31 letter from the land office.

He also said that the school had yesterday filed to withdraw the lawsuit.

“We have received the official letter from PTG to extend the lease. Accordingly we have filed notice of discontinuance yesterday for the legal proceeding,” he told Malay Mail when contacted.

Chan confirmed that the lawsuit had come up for case management today before a High Court registrar, and that the court case has officially come to an end today as the court took note of the notice of discontinuance.

“It is officially recorded that the notice of discontinuance is filed,” he added.

This would officially conclude the school’s four-year bid to have the land lease extended ahead of its expiry in September 2021.

The school via the Lady Superior had on October 4, 2017 wrote to the Federal Territories Land and Mines Office to ask for an extension of the land lease that was due to expire on September 6, 2021, but only received a response in January 2021 with a letter dated December 18, 2020 to notify the non-renewal of the lease but with no reason stated for the decision.

On April 7, 2021, the school via the Lady Superior filed a lawsuit against the PTGWP, to seek court orders to quash the PTGWP’s decision to not renew the land lease and to compel the PTGWP to revoke the December 2020 letter refusing the lease renewal.

On April 19, High Court judge Datuk Noorin Badaruddin granted the school’s application for leave for judicial review, which meant the school could proceed to have its lawsuit being heard.

Amid calls from the public and the school’s alumnae to allow the historic school to remain on the land, the Prime Minister’s Office on April 22 announced that the government had agreed to extend the land lease for SMK Convent Bukit Nanas — located on government land in Section 49, Jalan Bukit Nanas, Kuala Lumpur — for 60 years, in light of the importance of its contribution to the nation’s education since 1899.

The Prime Minister’s Office said the land lease renewal was only for the “purposes of education”, adding that this solution was agreed to by both parties in a meeting between the Lady Superior Sr Theresa Chua Siu Yan and the chief secretary to the government together with the Federal Territories Land and Mines Office’s director.

Previously on May 3, Chan was reported saying that his client was considering to settle the lawsuit which challenges the government’s decision to not renew the land lease, but said his client was waiting for an official letter from the government to confirm the lease renewal and that the case would come up for case management on June 3.

Malay Mail today sighted a May 31 letter from Federal Territories Land and Mines Office director Datuk Muhammad Yasir Yahya to the Lady Superior of the Society of Saint Maur, with the letter referring to the Lady Superior’s November 2017 application which was related to the bid to have the land lease extended.

In the letter, Muhammad Yasir informed the Lady Superior that the Kuala Lumpur Land Executive Committee (JKT WPKL) had in a May 11, 2021 meeting decided to approve the application for the land lease for the school’s lot measuring around 9,915.15 square metres to be extended for 60 years.

To complete the land lease renewal process, the Lady Superior was told in the letter that it would have to pay RM2,070 within three months of the delivery of the letter.

The RM2,070 amount covers costs such as a RM10 rental for the first year, a RM1,000 premium and other fees such as for land surveying and marking of boundaries.

The letter stated that the land is required to only be used purely as the site for the government-assisted school Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Convent Bukit Nanas only, and that the land cannot be transferred or leased out or mortgaged without JKTWPKL’s knowledge.