THE Office of the Judiciary yesterday did not show any intention to back away from the controversial housing project in Doi Suthep despite Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwan yesterday suggesting the houses may be relocated.

The office secretary-general Sarawut Benjakul said his agency would deal with the matter under the existing law.

Earlier, Prawit had said the Bt1-billion temporary summer residences for court officials on Chiang Mai forestland is likely to be turned into an area for public use, and trees felled for the construction will be replanted.

General Prawit said further steps would follow after a meeting of relevant state agencies next Monday.

However, both sides in the dispute remained firm on their positions and did not show signs of budging yesterday.

“I can’t order the buildings to be dismantled. It’s beyond my authority,” Sarawut said. “They are not my personal property; they belong to the state,” he told a press conference.

The dispute involves the construction of summer residences for senior judges and court officials at the foot of the northern city’s Doi Suthep mountain. Local environmentalists are unhappy that the ongoing construction has allegedly appropriated Doi Suthep forestland, as the construction site is close to the Doi Suthep-Pui National Park.

The project, built at a cost of Bt1 billion, includes nine homes for court presidents, 36 homes for chief justices, and 13 apartment buildings for court officials.

The Network to Reclaim Doi Suthep Forest, which is campaigning against the Office of the Judiciary’s project, yesterday demanded that the buildings must be demolished. “We won’t accept any other suggestions, including one about turning the project into a learning centre,” Teerasak Rupsuwan, coordinator of the group, said.

“The network will not back off from this fight,” he said, adding that his group was planning to take the case to the Administrative Court and was also collecting signatures for a petition to the Palace.

Prawit said yesterday that the project was likely to be moved elsewhere and the current site turned into an area for public use.

“The trees that were felled will be replaced to make it look like before,” he said. “It may be turned into a recreational area for the public.”

Prawit, who is in charge of the government’s security affairs, also noted that the construction site is not in a national forest. “The land plot is a state property and it has been obtained lawfully,” he said.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has instructed relevant state agencies to find a solution that would be satisfactory to all parties, Government Spokesman Lt-General Sansern Kaewkumnerd said yesterday. The PM said all parties – the Justice Ministry, construction contractors and local residents – deserve sympathy.

“The government wants to make everyone get what they expect in a good way. No problems should be created in society. And there must be no disputes,” the spokesman said, quoting the PM.

Sarawut said the project area does not encroach on any national forest and the agency had received permission from the Treasury Department and other relevant agencies for use of the land.

The Office of the Judiciary welcomes all constructive suggestions that could help solve the problem, Sarawut said.

He said that he would raise the matter at the meeting of the executive board of the Courts of Justice next Monday and would relay its resolution to the prime minister for further consideration.

Sarawut said that no large trees were felled for the construction. More than 230 trees with trunks larger than 30 centimetres in diameter were transplanted and moved out before the construction began, he said. He also said that land plots adjacent to the project were used by some other state agencies, and a local sports stadium is located nearby.

Earlier yesterday, three members of the group cancelled a symbolic march they began on Wednesday from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, citing fears that the activity would be used by those with “hidden agendas”.

Krit Yiammetha, Direk Chantharadilok and Saruth Srithaworn planned to walk to the capital to present a petition to the prime minister, asking him to use Article 44 of the interim charter to halt construction of the project. Krit said many people with ill intentions had tried to infiltrate or get involved in the march to use it for instigating or fuelling disunity, which was not what he and the other volunteers intended.

“We undertook a peaceful march out of a sincere intention to ask the premier’s help – not for other purposes,” Krit said, noting there had been no collection of donations associated with the march,” he said.

Meanwhile, four Chiang Mai residents painted a graffiti mural onto a wall in the northern city’s Muang district as a symbolic gesture of protest against the project. The mural shows tears of blood streaming down an eye, while a shadow inside the iris shows forestland being carved out in the controversial estate’s shape. Accompanied by the Thai wording meaning “Reclaiming Doi Suthep Forest”, the graffiti was on Wednesday painted onto the wall of a consenting private property owner near Chiang Mai College of Dramatic Arts and has been shared widely on Thai social media.