PUTRAJAYA, July 24 — The Federal Court today granted leave to Utusan Melayu (M) Berhad and its former journalist to appeal against a Court of Appeal order that they pay RM200,000 in damages to veteran lawyer Manjeet Singh Dhillon for defamation.

The three-man bench comprising Chief Justice Tan Sri Richard Malanjum and Federal Court judges Tan Sri Zainun Ali and Tan Sri Aziah Ali allowed their application for leave to appeal.

Two questions of law were framed for the Federal Court to determine at the hearing of the appeal involving the issue of defence of reportage.

Manjeet Singh had filed the RM2.5 million defamation lawsuit on September 26, 2011 in which he named former Padang Serai member of Parliament N. Gobalakrishnan, Raja Syahrir, Utusan Melayu and Sistem Televisyen Malaysia Bhd (TV3) as the defendants in relation to Gobalakrishan’s interview to the media on August 16, 2011.

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In his statement of claim, he said that Gobalakrisnan had made derogatory remarks against him.

Manjeet Singh claimed Raja Syahrir had prepared a report of the interview which was published by Utusan Malaysia in its newspaper dated August 17, 2011 with reckless disregard to the truth of the contents while a substantial part of the entire interview was broadcast on TV3 on August 16, 2011.

On September 11, 2015, Manjeet Singh won his suit against Gobalakrishnan, Raja Syahrir and Utusan Melayu at the Kuala Lumpur High Court but his suit against TV3 was dismissed.

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High Court judge Justice Nor Bee Arifin ordered Utusan Melayu and Raja Syahrir to pay RM200,000 in damages and Gobalakrishnan RM150,000 in damages for defaming Manjeet. However, she found no case against TV3.

On March 13, this year, the Court of Appeal reversed the High Court’s decision and ordered TV3 to pay RM200,000 in damages to Manjeet Singh.

The appellate court, however, dismissed the appeals by Gobalakrishnan, Utusan Melayu and Raja Syahrir and affirmed the High Court order.

TV3 and Gobalakrishnan did not bring the matter to the Federal Court.

Lawyer Tan Sri Muhammad Shafee Abdullah appeared for Utusan Melayu and Raja Syahrir while Manjeet was represented by lawyer Americk Singh Sidhu. — Bernama