Justice Azizul Azmi Adnan, who sat with a three-member bench, said the relief sought by the appellants had been rendered academic by subsequent events.

Reading out the broad grounds, Azizul said the bench would not express any opinion even if a decision previously made in respect of the licensing extension and amendments of the preconditions were unlawful.

“Any declaration by this court will not affect the rights of the applicants.

“In our considered view, there no longer exists any controversy between the parties that would affect them in any meaningful way,” he said.

As such, Azizul said, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur ruled correctly in dismissing the judicial review application made on July 28, 2021.

The three-member panel, which included Justices Supang Lian, the bench chairman, and Mariana Yahya, heard the appeal last November.

Save Malaysia Stop Lynas chairman Tan Bun Teet and residents Ismail Abu Bakar and G Ponusamy filed the judicial review against the PH government on Nov 8, 2019.

They wanted the court to nullify the decision made on Aug 15, 2019 by then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his Cabinet allowing Lynas a licence extension of six months.

Lynas had been given the licence by the Atomic Energy Licensing Board to operate a rare earth facility in Gebeng, Pahang, since Sept 3, 2012.

Its third licence renewal covered the period from Sept 3, 2016 to Sept 2, 2019.

Azizul said the board had written to Lynas requiring that the company fulfil certain preconditions before a fourth licence extension was granted.

Among others, it was required to remove all water leached purification residue from Malaysia by Sept 2, 2019.

On Aug 15, 2019, the board chairman through a media release said the Cabinet had renewed Lynas’s licence to operate for six months, subject to several preconditions.

However, the NGO and the residents took the position that the decision-making process by the board and the energy, science, technology and climate change minister had been wrongly delegated to the Cabinet.

They said the six-month extension was not a decision the Cabinet was entitled to make in law.

Azizul said lawyers for the NGO and residents last November notified the court that their clients were dropping the reliefs of certiorari and mandamus originally sought in their application.

He said they only wished to pursue a declaration that the six-month licence renewal was null and void.

“Lynas’s licence (was) renewed for the sixth time and will expire on March 2, 2026, and the board amended some of the preconditions,” he said.

Although the appeal was dismissed, the bench set aside a High Court order requiring the appellants to pay costs of RM20,000 to the government and another RM20,000 to Lynas on grounds that the application was not frivolous.

The residents and NGO were represented by lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sarwar, while senior federal counsel Nur Irmawatie Daud appeared for the former ministers. Cecil Abraham represented Lynas.

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