CBN CONSIDERING SETTLEMENT
It is waiting for letter from government on decision to extend lease by another 60 years, says lawyer
THE Lady Superior of the Society of Saint Maur, which runs the all-girls school SMK Convent Bukit Nanas, is considering a settlement of its legal action to challenge the non-renewal of the school’s land lease.
The lease for the school, which is widely known as CBN, was due to expire on Sept 6, this year.
Counsel Damien Chan, who appeared for the applicant (the Lady Superior), confirmed this when contacted yesterday.
Chan said parties were considering a settlement following the announcement by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on the government’s decision to extend the lease for the school by another 60 years.
“We are waiting for an official letter (from the government),” he said after the matter came up for case management before High Court senior deputy registrar Nur Aslamiah Jamil via online proceedings.
The lawyer said the court had fixed June 3 for case management for parties to update the court on the status of the settlement.
He added that a stay application by the school against the authorities’ decision not to renew the land lease was supposedly set to be heard yesterday before judge Datuk Noorin Badaruddin, but the matter had been converted to a case management instead.
On April 19, the Lady Superior, which is the corporate entity operating CBN, was granted leave by the High Court to initiate a judicial review application to challenge the government’s decision not to extend the school’s land lease under its name.
In the application it filed on April 7, it named the Federal Territories Land and Mines Office director as the sole respondent in the case.
The school had reportedly written to the land office on Oct 4, 2017, to seek an extension of the land lease but on Dec 18, last year they received a reply that it would not be renewed.
In the application, the applicant (Lady Superior) is seeking, among others, a certiorari order to quash the land office’s decision in refusing the land lease extension, as well as a mandamus order to compel the director to revoke the land lease non-renewal letter dated Dec 18 last year.
On April 22, the PMO announced, in a statement, that the government had decided to extend the lease for CBN by another 60 years.
The statement said the matter was decided upon after taking into account the school’s numerous contributions to education in the country over the years.
The PMO, however, said that this approval was given only for the purpose of education.
It also said that the decision was reached after Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Mohd Zuki Ali and Federal Territories Land and Mines Office director Datuk Muhammad Yasir met the Lady Superior of the Society of Saint Maur, Theresa Chua Siu Yan, who represents the school’s board of governors and its trustees.
Both parties, said the PMO, agreed to the resolution proposed.
CBN, which was established in 1899 and located along Jalan Bukit Nanas, here, is one of the oldest schools in the country.