Gopal Sri Ram JCA:

[1] The respondent owns a piece of land in Seberang Prai which it wanted to develop. It wanted to construct a commercial building on the land. It was to be an 11-storey building with a supermarket. It hired an architect who drew up plans. Those plans had to be approved by the appellant which is the local authority in, and for, Seberang Perai. There were two plans to start with. One is what is generally called the layout plan; the other had to do with the earthworks.

[2] Under the law, the respondent could not lawfully commence building work of any sort - including earthwork - without the approval of the appellant. It waited for the approvals to come. Eventually they came. The layout plan was approved by the appellant on 30 November 1984, while the earthworks plan was approved on 19 July 1986. The approvals came with conditions. One of the conditions required the respondent to construct or upgrade a monsoon drain on the land adjoining the respondents property. That land belonged to the state. There were squatters on it. Constructing the monsoon drain meant having to deal with these squatters. Another condition was that the respondent had to construct a perim