Malaysiakini（http://www.malaysiakini.com）
Kuantan church gets leave to challenge land acquisition, 16 November 2012
by Hafiz Yatim
The Church of St Thomas Kuantan, has today obtained permission from the Kuantan High Court to initiate judicial review proceedings against the government decision to acquire church land, where the St Thomas Secondary School is located.
The decision was made by Justice Mariana Yahya, who allowed the application by the Titular Roman Catholic Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur, who are the applicants.
Following this, the court also allowed a stay of the acquisition order until the disposal of the judicial review application.
“The court ruled that the church application is not frivolous and not vexatious. It has fixed Jan 11 to hear the judicial review application,” ruled Justice Mariana in her chambers.
The Archbishop named the director of Pahang Land and Mines Department and the Education Ministry as respondents.
Lawyers Bastian Vendargon, Gene Vendargon, Anne Vendargon and Benedict Wong appeared for the applicants.
Bastian said the applicants wanted to quash the state government decision to acquire the land.
“We have been given leave to proceed with the judicial review application despite an objection raised by the Attorney-General’s Chambers. It’s not the end of the journey but a step forward.
“By consent of the AG’s Chambers they have agreed that there will be no further movement (as to the acquisition) until the judicial review is fully heard and disposed of. That removes the threat that is hanging over our heads. This is just the beginning and we have to move on in establishing our case as the decision was done irrationally and in bad faith, on constitutional grounds and the unreasonableness of the action,” he said.
Father Mitchel Anthony Joseph, in welcoming the decision, said the church is glad at the decision.
“We can now proceed with the case, there is hope,” he said.
It was reported that the state government wanted to claim a portion of the church land measuring 1.74 acres which is 56 per cent of the total of 12,614 sq metres.
The Catholics need the land for expansion of its growing Catholic community as it conducts Sunday catechism in the classrooms. The condition on the land is stated ‘Tanah ini hendaklah di gunakan untuk Tapak Gereja sahaja’ (This land is only meant to be utilised for religious use only).
The land has been owned by the Catholic Church since 1910, and the school was set up in the 1950s.
The Titular Roman Catholic Archbishop of Kuala Lumpur wanted the acquisition order to be declared null and void as it infringed on the fundamental right of freedom to practice the Catholic religion as guaranteed under Article 3 of the federal constitution.
They also claimed the decision of the state was to benefit the Education Ministry and was made with mala fide (bad intention). The church also sought a declaration that the state government’s decision had infringed the Roman Catholic Archbishop’s rights to use the land for the purposes of the church.
Archbishop Murphy Pakiam had also written a letter to Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak seeking his intervention. The church had also written to Pahang Menteri Besar Adnan Yaakob to oppose the decision.
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