[1] This is an appeal by the appellants against the decision of the Court of Appeal which upheld the decision of the High Court in dismissing the appellants' application for leave for extension of time to file an application for judicial review pursuant to O 53 r 3 of the Rules of the High 1980 ("the RHC").

[2] On 6 September 2012, we heard and dismissed the appeal. We now give our reasons.

Background Facts

[3] Briefly, the facts are these. The company known as Raub Australian Gold Mining Sdn Bhd ("the 2nd respondent") had been granted mining rights under a lease. At the material time, the 2nd respondent was in the midst of building a Carbon-In-Leach Plant ("CIL Plant") near Kampung Bukit Koman, Raub, Pahang ("Kampung Bukit Koman") to process old gold mine tailings using cyanide.

[4] The Director General of the Department of Environment ("the 1st respondent"), the authority responsible for enforcing the provisions of the Environmental Quality Act 1974 (" EQA "), had on 13 January 1997 approved the Environmental Impact Assessment ("EIA") report submitted by the 2nd respondent ("the 1st decision").

[5] The appellants who were residents and owners of the properties at Kampung Bukit Koman,