PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal here has dismissed the appeal by Mohd Hatta Sanuri to reinstate his lawsuit against the government and four others, including two former prime ministers, over the cancellation of the Kuala Lumpur Singapore High-Speed Rail (HSR) project.
A three-judge panel led by Justice Datuk Supang Lian, in a unanimous decision, agreed on Thursday (Jan 16) with the High Court’s ruling that the matter was not justiciable.
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Justice Supang also ruled that there was no reasonable cause of action against the government and made no order regarding costs.
The other members of the panel were Justices Datuk Zaini Mazlan and Datuk Dr Alwi Abdul Wahab.
Hatta was appealing against the decision of the High Court that struck out his lawsuit which named the government, former prime ministers Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, former minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Economy) Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed and former transport minister Datuk Seri Dr Wee Ka Siong as defendants.
On Dec 15, 2023, High Court judge Justice Roz Mawar Rozain, then a judicial commissioner, allowed the government’s application to strike out the suit, leading Hatta to file his appeal.
He said he filed the suit on his behalf and on behalf of the more than 32 million Malaysians allegedly affected by the cancellation of the project on Dec 30, 2022.
In the statement of claim, he sought an order for the court to declare the cancellation of the project null and void, as well as for all the defendants to pay RM1mil compensation to him and all Malaysians for wrongfully and negligently cancelling the project.
ALSO READ: Court throws out suit against govt, four others over HSR cancellation
On Jan 1, 2021, Malaysia and Singapore announced the termination of the 350km HSR project, as the two countries failed to reach an agreement on changes proposed by Malaysia before the project agreement expired on Dec 31, 2020.
The project was expected to provide three main services, which were direct travel between Malaysia and Singapore within 90 minutes, domestic service in Malaysia, and shuttle service from Iskandar Puteri (Johor) to Singapore.
Lawyer Mohaji Selamat represented Hatta in Thursday’s court proceedings while Senior Federal Counsels Donald Joseph Franklin, Zetty Zurina Kamaruddin, Nur Ezdiani Roleb, Noridayu Md Kassim and Syafiq Affandy Hasan appeared for the government. – Bernama
