He was referring to Kuala Lumpur City Hall’s (DBKL) decision to challenge the Court of Appeal decision to nullify a public objection hearing on the project involving three high-rise towers to be built on Yayasan Wilayah Persekutuan (YWP) land.

The residents had gone to court citing grounds that they were unable to present their case in a “meaningful” way under Rule 5 of the Federal Territory Planning Act 1982, designed to allow public participation in areas of planning and development control.

Khalid said it was only “a dispute of procedures” on whether the public objection hearing was rightly or wrongly convened.

He said the residents had initiated their objection before Pakatan Harapan came into power “but unfortunately, after the administration changed, they decided to carry on”.

“They should have taken the opportunity to discuss it with us. Instead, they decided to proceed with the case, so we left it to the court to decide.

“They lost the first case and they appealed. So now, DBKL is appealing against the Court of Appeal’s decision (in the Federal Court),” he told reporters after officiating an event here.

On March 13, the Court of Appeal declared the public objection hearing conducted with Taman Tiara Titiwangsa residents null and void.

In its decision, the court found that DBKL had not furnished the residents with documents pertaining to the case and also said there was an element of bias because the mayor, who is the decision maker of the project, also sits as a director and trustee of YWP, the land owner.

Following the decision, Khalid said there would be a new public hearing.