Residents who had objected to the proposed construction of three high-rise towers in Taman Tiara Titiwangsa had gone to the courts to nullify an objection hearing held by Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) last year.

In its decision yesterday, the Court of Appeal agreed that there was an element of bias because the mayor, who is the decision-maker, also sits as a director and trustee of the landowner, YWP.

Federal Territories Minister Khalid Samad said a new hearing would be held following the court’s decision, but did not say when.

However, he said it was normal for DBKL officers to be on the YWP board “to handle projects which are placed under the board”.

“This (the Court of Appeal’s decision) does not rule that the KL mayor should not sit on the YWP board,” he said after the launch of the KL Bersih programme aimed at creating awareness on the need to keep the city clean.

Khalid said the YWP should not be run by “someone else” other than the government or DBKL officers.

“That is the only way that we can monitor the projects that are placed under the foundation,” he said.

In their appeal, the residents cited grounds that they were unable to present their case in a “meaningful” way under Rule 5 of the Federal Territory Planning Act 1982, which is designed to allow public participation in areas of planning and development control.

They claimed that DBKL had failed to provide a detailed explanation and technical reports on the project, such as the traffic impact and social impact assessment, during the hearing, which were documents requested by the residents.