KOTA BARU: From today, the Kota Baru Municipal Council Islamic City (MPKB-BRI) will suspend tyre clamping following a decision by the Court of Appeal.
Council president Rosnazli Amin said the suspension would continue until further notice.
"The council will adhere to the decision by the Court of Appeal today and has directed our lawyers to get the full judgement of the case.
"We need to know the full judgement before deciding whether to file an appeal at the Federal Court.
"The council has also decided to suspend tyre clamping under Rule 17 of MPKB-BRI's Road Transport Rules 2000 from today."
The Court of Appeal today ruled that the Kota Baru Municipal Council's tyre clamping law is invalid as it goes against the Road Transport Act 1987.
The ruling means the council can only issue summonses and not clamp the tyres of vehicles parked on a parking lot.
The suspension of tyre clamping does not apply to vehicles parked outside a parking lot or parked illegally and endangering others.
This ruling was decided by Court of Appeal judges Datuk Hashim Hamzah, Datuk Abdul Karim Jalil and Datuk Supang Lian at a hearing this morning.
The appellant, Nursyafawati Kasim, 33, filed a civil suit against MPKB in 2019.
The law firm accounting clerk filed the suit after MPKB officers clamped the tyre of her car for not topping up the parking fee on July 25, 2019.
Nursyafawati had argued that her car was clamped due to unpaid parking fees and the council only unclamped the vehicle after she was forced to pay a total of RM110 — RM100 to open the clamp and a RM10 compound.
MPKB had also insisted that she settle arrears of RM760 for parking offences.
In the suit, she alleged that MPKB and its officers had abused their power by acting wrongly when they clamped her car.
The Kota Baru High Court had ruled that it was within bounds for MPKB to clamp cars parked on a parking lot.
Nursyafawati appealed the decision. A three-member panel of judges today overturned the decision.
The judges also ordered MPKB to pay Nursyafawati RM5,000 in costs.