Hong Kong court will hear application to temporarily ban controversial checkpoint plan before cross-border rail link opens

The development came after pro-independence activist Sixtus Baggio Leung Chung-hang and retired civil servant Kwok Cheuk-kin filed the injunction application on Monday, saying a temporary ban on the so-called co-location plan at the new high-speed rail terminus in the city’s West Kowloon area would not incur any losses for the local authorities.

They were among five people seeking judicial reviews over the co-location arrangement, but the Court of First Instance last week announced it would only deal with their legal challenges on October 30, a month after the expected launch of the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Hong Kong Express Rail Link.

Their judicial reviews argued that the co-location plan, which would see national laws being applied at parts of the West Kowloon terminus, was in breach of the city’s mini-constitution, the Basic Law.