The decision not to pursue the case in the Court of Appeal came after federal environmental regulators gave their final approval for the project in April. However, the natural resources, environment and climate change ministry also imposed 71 conditions that the project must meet.
The project was initially approved in 2019, but fisherman Zakaria Ismail successfully got the environment department’s (DoE) appeal tribunal to set aside the approval.
That saw the state government initiating judicial review proceedings in the High Court to quash the DoE’s decision and reinstate the project. In August last year, the High Court dismissed the Penang government’s application.
Justice Hanipah Farikullah, who chaired a three-member panel in the Court of Appeal, today struck off the appeal and ordered the Penang government to pay costs of RM3,000 to Zakaria, who was named a respondent.
The other judges who sat with her were Justices Lim Chong Fong and Azhahari Kamal Ramli.
State legal officer Charanjit Singh appeared for the Penang government while lawyers Jessica Ram Binwani and A Lalith Kumar appeared for Zakaria.
The reclamation project, originally costing RM10 billion, is a state government initiative to finance the RM46 billion Penang Transport Master Plan through the reclamation of three islands covering 1,620ha off Permatang Damar Laut.
The number of islands has since been reduced to one.
PSI project delivery partner SRS Consortium Sdn Bhd (SRS) will reclaim the island, with consortium partner Gamuda Bhd paying RM3.8 billion to reclaim half of Island A as part of a 30:70 joint venture with a state GLC, with the lion’s share to be held by SRS.
SRS will reclaim the remaining half of the island as and when there is demand.
The project received fierce opposition from fishermen, environmentalists and G25, a group of prominent retired civil servants, over concerns that it would adversely affect marine life.
Zakaria has filed a fresh appeal to the DoE’s appeal tribunal to challenge the approval granted by the federal government the previous month, Jessica told reporters.
She said the tribunal’s secretariat has yet to appoint the panel members to hear the appeal, which was filed in May.
No date has been fixed for the appeal as yet, she said.