This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on January 11, 2016.

KUALA LUMPUR: At least 62 registered landowners last Friday filed a judicial review application in the High Court in Kuala Lumpur against Putrajaya over the latter approving the land acquisition of Ampang Park Shopping Centre for the MRT station complex to be built there. 

Lawyer for the plaintiffs Jason Ng Kau told reporters that the owners were filing a judicial review to seek some orders, and to halt land enquiry proceedings that started in December 2015. 

“We are asking the court to grant an order to stop the land enquiry proceedings, while waiting for MRT Corp (Mass Rapid Transit Corp Sdn Bhd) and the Ampang Park owners to negotiate an agreement to save Ampang Park from being demolished,” he said. 

Ng said the owners were not against Putrajaya. In fact, he said, they were supportive of the MRT project, but they wanted it to be constructed underneath Ampang Park, as was the MRT project in Bukit Bintang here. 

“In Jalan Bukit Bintang, the MRT runs underground. They did not demolish the building; they (Bukit Bintang stakeholders) managed to sign a mutual agreement in 2012,” he said. 

Ng said although his firm only represented 62 owners, he was confident that more would join their cause.

“We have more than 150 owners who have signed the statutory declaration for this cause. We may not be directly representing them, but they are supportive,” he said.

Ng also said the owners were primarily asking for the court to declare the acquisition of their land unconstitutional, unlawful, illegal, null and void. 

Shopowner Narendra Kumar, who runs one of the oldest stores in Ampang Park, having been there for 35 years, said he was positive on the outcome. 

“We have to wait and see, but I am hopeful that everything will turn out well. 

“We just don’t want Ampang Park to be demolished. It is our livelihood and it has so much history,” he said. 

Narendra said they had previously been told to vacate the premises by April 2016. However, he added that there were contradicting statements, leaving owners unsure of the situation. 

The Malaysian Insider previously reported that at least 100 shopowners and tenants protested against an MRT pedestrian walkway planned to be built by MRT Corp underneath the mall.

The 42-year-old mall is scheduled to be demolished for MRT Corp to build the Ampang MRT station. 

The walkway, which will go underground, requires the mall to be demolished. The station itself will be built next to the mall. 

MRT Corp had given Ampang Park owners two options: sign a mutual agreement with the project owner or acquiesce in the land acquisition process. Both options involve the demolition of the mall. — The Malaysian Insider