If not for the Shah Alam High Court's intervention, 18 families in Ampang New Village, Selangor, would have been evicted on Sunday and their houses would have been demolished.

They are among 24 families involved in a dispute with the Ampang Jaya Municipal Council (MPAJ) over a delay in developing a 3.2-hectare plot of land allocated to them by the Selangor government.

Today, they managed to obtain an ex-parte injunction in chambers from judge Alizatul Khair Osman. It prevents the council and any other party associated with it from exercising their powers under the Essential Regulations Act 1969 (to enforce eviction).

A lawyer for the residents, K C Cheah told reporters later that all parties to the dispute would have to appear in court on Dec 15 to determine the legality, or otherwise, of MPAJ's eviction and demolition notice.

"If MPAJ or the developers want to challenge the outcome of today's hearing, they will have to come to court. We will see if they can brush aside our injunction," he said.

Another of the lawyers, Rajinder Singh, said efforts to clear the land for development would have to be postponed for the time being.

He also said MPAJ and its president Ramli Mahmud have "yet to learn their lesson and act in the interests of the common people".

"The president should realise that, for a man in his position and authority, he should be fair and not act merely for the developers," he said.

Private land

The residents had, on Nov 14, filed an affidavit to accompany their application to declare the MPAJ eviction and demolition notice dated Oct 22 as illegal.

They argued that MPAJ's notice wrongfully referred to their land as "government reserve", when the Selangor government had in 1994 recognised the land as private and belonging to the residents under their company Wangsa Unggul Sdn Bhd.

Furthermore, the affidavit said, MPAJ had itself acted against the Essential Regulations Act by failing to pursue and exhaust all other avenues in settling the 'squatter settlement' dispute before issuing the notice.

More importantly, it added, the dispute over the land was an internal matter between the residents and Wanggsa Unggul directors, and MPAJ had no business interfering in their affairs.

Wangsa Unggul was created in 1993 to develop the plot of land where 113 families used to live.

After several failed attempts to develop the site, the company teamed up with Demi Prima to build condominium blocks, a project expected to gross more than RM80 million.

Residents, however, said they were unhappy because they stood to gain little more than RM3 million, while the lion's share is expected to go to Demi Prima.

Wangsa Unggul officials were mum when contacted by malaysiakini previously, saying they preferred the issue and other 'past' grievances to be settled in court.