Majlis Perbandaran Subang Jaya v 1. ) LEMBAGA RAYUAN NEGERI SELANGOR 2. ) UNI-SOURCE INDENTORS SDN BHD

Case Significance

Illustrates that a decision of a state planning appeal board allowing a developer's appeal against a refusal of planning permission is amenable to certiorari where the board has erred in law, including as to the requirement for an approved layout plan.

This High Court decision concerns an application for judicial review by a local authority to quash a decision of a state appeal board that had allowed a developer's appeal against the refusal of planning permission. The applicant, the Subang Jaya City Council, had refused the second respondent developer's application for planning permission to construct a commercial columbarium — a high-rise development on land in an industrial area — and the developer successfully appealed to the first respondent, the Selangor State Appeal Board, whose decision the council sought to quash by certiorari under Order 53 of the Rules of Court 2012. A central question was whether a grant of planning permission must be accompanied by an approved layout plan, and whether the appeal board had erred in allowing the developer's appeal in the circumstances. Having considered the statutory planning framework and the parties' submissions, the court was satisfied that the case required judicial intervention. It allowed the application for judicial review and made an order of certiorari to quash the decision of the appeal board that had allowed the developer's appeal in respect of the proposed commercial columbarium development. The court ordered costs of RM3,000.00 to be paid by each respondent, with the second respondent's costs subject to allocatur. The judgment illustrates the supervisory role of the High Court over the decisions of a state planning appeal board, and that such decisions may be quashed on judicial review where the board has erred in law in the exercise of its planning-appeal jurisdiction. The court's supervisory jurisdiction on judicial review is not an appeal on the planning merits but a check on the legality of the decision under challenge, so that certiorari lies where the appeal board has misdirected itself in law or exceeded its powers. In quashing the board's decision, the court reaffirmed that the statutory requirements attaching to a grant of planning permission — including, where applicable, the need for an approved layout plan — are conditions the planning authorities and the appeal board must respect, and that a development as sensitive as a commercial columbarium cannot be permitted in disregard of that framework.