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Wichian Jungrungruang, the Pollution Department's director-general, said the verdict upholds an earlier decision by an arbitration panel which ordered the agency to pay almost 9 billion baht to the NVPSKG consortium for the waste water treatment facility.

In its ruling last Friday, Administrative Court judges ruled two-to-one to award the lump sum to the NVPSKG consortium.

The amount covered construction payments and compensation plus interest.

The Sabah Environmental Protection Association (Sepa) is seeking to legally stop the constuction and operation of the Kubota power plant in Tawau which it claims is a health hazard.

Sepa president Wong Tack, who filed the application at the High Court here for a judicial review, named the Tawau Municipal Council president, federal Environment Department director, Land and Survey Department director and Sabah Electricity Sdn Bhd (SESB) as its first, second, third and fourth respondents respectively.

A Malaysian court Thursday kept Lynas’s license for a controversial rare earth plant on hold by delaying until Oct. 10 a decision on whether to consider judicial reviews to block production permanently.

The Australian mining company said the Kuantan High Court’s decision had extended a one-week halt that expired Thursday.

The rare earth plant — one of the largest outside China — has been ready to fire up since early May, but the company has been embroiled in environmental and safety disputes with local residents since construction began two years ago.

The recommendation by the Supreme Court-appointed central empowered committee (CEC) to carve out only a one km to 100 m wide buffer zone for protected areas has upset environmental activists, who alleged that it was too insignificant for conservation of the state's rich floral and faunal biodiversity.

The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Union government to explain whether an agreement with Russia to waive the civil liability in case of an accident at the Kudankulam nuclear power plant would have an impact on the exchequer.

“Any agreement in violation of statute or law is void,” said a Bench of Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and Dipak Misra hearing a batch of petitions filed by anti-nuclear activists for a stay on the commissioning of the plant.

The Industrial Estate Authority of Thailand (IEAT) plans to file a court appeal today or tomorrow over the recent ruling on an ecological industrial estate plan in Rayong province.

The IEAT is ready to appeal to the court and provide additional details, said governor Verapong Chaiperm, adding that IRPC Plc has finished its environmental impact assessment (EIA).

Save Malaysia, Stop Lynas (SMSL) will apply to the Kuantan High Court tomorrow to suspend the Temporary Operating Licence (TOL) that has been given to Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP).

The anti-Lynas lobby group will ask the court to suspend the TOL until the court hears two judicial review cases related to the controversial rare earth plant, said SMSL spokesperson Tan Bun Teet.

“A responsible government would never have issued the TOL knowing full well that the court has accepted SMSL’s two judicial review applications,” said Tan in a statement today.

Villagers accused of causing global warming through forest encroachment intend to ask the Administrative Court to revoke a regulation that allows a government agency to file a civil case against them. Boon Saejoong of the Land Reform Network said the National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department (DNP) model for calculating the cost of damage caused by deforestation was unreasonable.

Read full article: http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/local/256410/villagers-dispute-agency-ec...

The new divisions are intended to speed up the legal proceedings involving environment-related cases to better ensure justice and solve problems more quickly, said Supreme Administrative Court president Hassawut Withitwiriyakul.The divisions were inaugurated at the Supreme Administrative Court, the Central Administrative Court and nine regional administrative courts across the country.

Read full story: http://www.bangkokpost.com/lite/news/250008/administrative-courts-launch...

Senior justices from Thailand visited Land and Environment Court of New South Wales to better understand court policies on adjudicating environmental cases.

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