The Court of Second Instance (TSI) has once again backed the government’s decision to reclaim another two land plots for expiration of concessions without the expected developments, reaffirming the decision as lawful.
A statement issued by the Office of the Court of Final Appeal acknowledged the TSI’s ruling regarding the Chief Executive’s decision to declare the expiration of the concession of land plots, and considered the reasons given by the appellants as invalid.
The cases refer to plots located in Taipa (Pac On) and in the ZAPE area of the Peninsula.
In both cases, the concession period given was well past the 25-year period, during which time the concessionaires failed to carry out the necessary developments to make the concession period definitive.
As on previous occasions, the situation has led the Court to rule the same way, allowing the government to claim the undeveloped land plots, according to rules established by the Land Law and independent of the fact that the concessionaires may or may not be guilty of non-development within the fixed period, and hence “not having any margin of discretion.”
For the first case, the TSI decided that the fact there was no prior hearing given to the concessionaire, would not be taken into account.
In the second case the appeal claimed an extension of the concession, since at the time of granting the plot of land it was occupied by facilities and things belonging to the administration.
The court verified this fact, as the party had been granted two extensions on the concession period for this reason previously.
The TSI noted that there was no breach of the principles of good faith, equality, justice, impartiality and trust, denying the appeals made by the two concessionaires and upholding the decisions made by the Chief Executive. RM
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