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New Straits Times
7 days ago
- Business
- New Straits Times
TNB ordered to pay RM547k in late interest to landowner
PUTRAJAYA: Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) has been ordered to pay RM547,105 in late payment interest to a company for delays in compensating it for land used in a transmission line project. A three-member Court of Appeal panel led by Federal Court judge Datuk Lee Swee Seng said the national utility giant must pay the sum to Lambang Kelana Sdn Bhd after finding that the company had been unfairly deprived of its money for over five years due to administrative delays. Other members of the bench were Court of Appeal judges Datuk Azimah Omar and Datuk Wong Kian Kheong. According to court documents, in 2007, TNB had prematurely entered Lambang Kelana's land without due compliance with wayleave procedures under Section 11 of the Electricity Supply Act to install electrical infrastructure. The section stipulates that utility companies must follow specific procedures before entering private land to install or build electrical infrastructure, including giving formal notice to landowners and paying full compensation for any disturbance or loss of use of the land. Lambang Kelana was neither served the statutory notice nor paid proper compensation for the loss of the portion of land acquired as wayleave for TNB. The dispute led to a protracted legal battle, and TNB only paid RM2.1 million in compensation in 2020. However, the payment did not include any interest for the long delay. In 2021, the Negri Sembilan State Authority decided that Lambang Kelana should receive RM1,369,332.95 in late payment interest for the delay in compensation from October 2015 to December 2020. However, TNB filed a judicial review to challenge the decision in the High Court and succeeded in getting it overturned. Azimah, who delivered the unanimous decision in dismissing the lower court's ruling, said the trial judge had misinterpreted the law by adopting a narrow and literal reading of the relevant provisions. "To deprive the appellant of its rightful late payment charges would certainly transgress upon the appellant's constitutional rights safeguarded under Article 13(2) of the Federal Constitution. "Despite the delay caused by the Land Administrator, TNB was still unjustly enriched by being able to utilise and earn interest on the monies that were supposed to be paid to Lambang Kelana for the entire duration of the delay," she said. The appellate court said any interpretation of the law that allows government authorities or licensees to delay compensation with impunity would be unjust. "We are certain that no statute ever legislated within our nation would promote a statutory authority to delay justice with impunity at the expense of unjust losses incurred against innocent landowners. "If that be the case, then TNB would stand to unjustly benefit by holding onto monies that should have been paid to landowners, courtesy of delays by the Land Administrator. "In the meantime, the Land Administrator would not suffer a single sen for the entire duration of the delay. The only party to suffer losses would be the landowner. "Such an interpretation would truly be absurd and unjust," the court added. The court also did not make any order for costs. Lambang Kelana was represented by lawyers Yeoh Cho Kheong and T. Subbbiah, while lawyer David Dinesh Mathew appeared for TNB.
New Straits Times
03-06-2025
- Business
- New Straits Times
TNB ordered to pay RM1.3mil in late interest to landowner
PUTRAJAYA: Tenaga Nasional Bhd (TNB) has been ordered to pay RM1.3 million in late payment interest to a company for delays in compensating it for land used in a transmission line project. A three-member Court of Appeal panel led by Federal Court judge Datuk Lee Swee Seng said the national utility giant must pay the sum to Lambang Kelana Sdn Bhd after finding that the company had been unfairly deprived of its money for over five years due to administrative delays. Other members of the bench were Court of Appeal judges Datuk Azimah Omar and Datuk Wong Kian Kheong. According to court documents, in 2007, TNB had prematurely entered Lambang Kelana's land without due compliance with wayleave procedures under Section 11 of the Electricity Supply Act to install electrical infrastructure. The section stipulates that utility companies must follow specific procedures before entering private land to install or build electrical infrastructure, including giving formal notice to landowners and paying full compensation for any disturbance or loss of use of the land. Lambang Kelana was neither served the statutory notice nor paid proper compensation for the loss of the portion of land acquired as wayleave for TNB. The dispute led to a protracted legal battle, and TNB only paid RM2.1 million in compensation in 2020. However, the payment did not include any interest for the long delay. In 2021, the Negri Sembilan State Authority decided that Lambang Kelana should receive RM1,369,332.95 in late payment interest for the delay in compensation from October 2015 to December 2020. However, TNB filed a judicial review to challenge the decision in the High Court and succeeded in getting it overturned. Azimah, who delivered the unanimous decision in dismissing the lower court's ruling, said the trial judge had misinterpreted the law by adopting a narrow and literal reading of the relevant provisions. "To deprive the appellant of its rightful late payment charges would certainly transgress upon the appellant's constitutional rights safeguarded under Article 13(2) of the Federal Constitution. "Despite the delay caused by the Land Administrator, TNB was still unjustly enriched by being able to utilise and earn interest on the monies that were supposed to be paid to Lambang Kelana for the entire duration of the delay," she said. The appellate court said any interpretation of the law that allows government authorities or licensees to delay compensation with impunity would be unjust. "We are certain that no statute ever legislated within our nation would promote a statutory authority to delay justice with impunity at the expense of unjust losses incurred against innocent landowners. "If that be the case, then TNB would stand to unjustly benefit by holding onto monies that should have been paid to landowners, courtesy of delays by the Land Administrator. "In the meantime, the Land Administrator would not suffer a single sen for the entire duration of the delay. The only party to suffer losses would be the landowner. "Such an interpretation would truly be absurd and unjust," the court added. The court also did not make any order for costs.
Free Malaysia Today
22-05-2025
- Free Malaysia Today
Court rules clerk a Hindu, says her unilateral conversion unlawful
Court of Appeal judge Azimah Omar said neither the mother nor the woman had the capacity to do the conversion. PUTRAJAYA : The Court of Appeal has unanimously affirmed a High Court ruling that a clerk was never a Muslim as her mother had unilaterally converted her in 2004 without the father's consent. A three-member bench, chaired by Justice Azimah Omar, said there was no appealable error by the High Court that warranted an intervention. In her broad grounds of judgment, Azimah said the woman, now 28, was unable to give consent as a minor as this would be in breach of Section 117 (b) of the Selangor Islamic Religious Enactment 2003. The provision states it is mandatory that the consent of both parents must be obtained before conversion of a minor who is below the age of 18 could take place. 'Neither the mother nor the woman had the capacity to do the conversion,' said Azimah, who sat with Justices Noorin Badaruddin and Firuz Jaffril. The Selangor Islamic Religious Council had taken the position that this was a case of renunciation and she should go to the shariah court. However, Azimah said it had nothing to do with the woman's measure of faith, and was all about procedural and administrative matters. Last year, the High Court had allowed the woman's declaration that she was a Hindu at all times and her conversion to Islam was done unilaterally by the mother. Azimah said a non-Muslim does not require a declaration from the shariah court that he or she is non-Muslim. 'In this case, the woman should not be unnecessarily burdened to prove in the shariah court that she is no longer a Muslim,' she said, adding that the religious court had no exclusive jurisdiction to determine the validity of an unlawful unilateral conversion. Lawyers Ahmad Kamal Abu Bakar and Arik Zakri Abdul Kadir appeared for the council, while Rajesh Nagarajan and Nur Azyan Azimi represented the woman. The facts of the case revealed that the woman was legitimately born as a Hindu as both her parents were from that faith when they married in 1982. The couple separated in September 1999 and the woman and her two sisters were placed under the mother's care and custody. The religious status of her siblings is unclear. In February 2004, the mother wanted to marry a Muslim man and registered as Muslim with the council's branch office in Klang. Subsequently, the mother converted the woman, who was seven years old in 2004. In 2023, the woman filed an originating summons in the High Court in Klang, seeking a declaration that she was never a Muslim and the conversion by the mother was 'void ab initio' or invalid from the very beginning. The council filed an application to strike out the suit, stating the matter should be adjudicated by the shariah court.
