BADAN PENGURUSAN BERSAMA SELESA HILLHOMES

On the court record

A joint management body litigating a Strata Management Tribunal review over a utility-ordered demolition of security structures, and transfer-of-proceedings and solicitor-removal procedure.

Badan Pengurusan Bersama Selesa Hillhomes is the joint management body of the Selesa Hillhomes development, and it appears in the corpus in strata-management litigation and the procedural contests around it, in a dispute connected to a utility-ordered demolition on the development. It appears as respondent and defendant in the High Court.

The strata dimension is central. The joint management body's claim against the developer was the subject of a judicial review of a decision of the Strata Management Tribunal, arising from various orders sought following the demolition of a guardhouse and boom-gate. Those structures, situated within the vicinity of an electricity-utility transmission tower, were said to constitute a safety hazard, and the utility had ordered their demolition. The matter therefore sits at the intersection of a strata community's interest in its security infrastructure, the developer's obligations, and the safety requirements that govern structures near high-voltage transmission — a genuine clash of legitimate concerns that the Tribunal and then the court had to reconcile.

The procedural strand reflects the tactical contest around that dispute. The joint management body was involved in an application to transfer proceedings under Order 57 of the Rules of Court 2012 and section 23 of the Courts of Judicature Act 1964, the court weighing forum non conveniens, the financial position and hardship of the defendant, and the ability to defend the action at the transferred court. In a Malay-language matter an application for the removal of the defendant's solicitors from acting was dismissed, the applicant having failed to meet the threshold test for disqualifying counsel. The joint management body's footprint is a study in how a strata dispute — here bound up with a utility-ordered demolition of security structures — generates judicial review before the Strata Management Tribunal and a series of procedural skirmishes over forum and legal representation.