The RM2.64 billion suit brought by former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and two others against Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak will be heard by a new judge.

This is because the judge slated for the matter, Justice Rosnaini Saub, is to be transferred from Kuala Lumpur to the High Court in Shah Alam, effective May 2.

According to Mahathir's lawyer Mohd Haniff Khatri Abdulla, the transfer order for Justice Rosnaini was issued before she was assigned to hear the case and before the case was filed.

Following this, Haniff said, she did not make any order today, when the matter was fixed for case management.

“This is because the judge does not want to tie down the next judge replacing her,” he said.

The new judge is expected to arrive on May 20.

However, the lawyer said, the court has now fixed May 26 for the hearing of Najib's application for a stay of all proceedings, including the PM's application not to file the defence and defence's striking out application.

Following this both parties, through their lawyers, agreed that Najib's filing of his defence, which was originally scheduled for tomorrow, to be deferred pending the outcome of the May 26 hearing.

“The plaintiff allows the defence an extension of time to file the defence until the stay is properly heard.

"If the court disagrees in allowing a stay, Najib will have to file his defence by June 2 and the plaintiff will reply on June 16," Haniff said.

The court, the lawyer added, has fixed the hearing of the mareva injunction sought by Mahathir and two others to freeze Najib's assets on June 23.

Breach of fiduciary duty, malfeasance

It was previously reported that Mahathir, former Batu Kawan Umno division vice-chief Khairuddin Abu Hassan and formerly Langkawi Umno member Anina Saadudin had filed the RM2.64 billion suit last month claiming that Najib had allegedly breached his fiduciary duty and committed malfeasance in public office to derail ongoing investigations against the sitting prime minister.

All three of them are part of the Citizens' Declaration movement to remove Najib as prime minister.

In their statement of claim, the plaintiffs said that due to Najib's position as the “numero uno” of Malaysia, he controls, commands and instructs or insists on omissions within the powers of each and every government machinery.

This includes, among others, ministries, ministers, parliamentary office (including the Public Accounts Committee) and legal enforcement agencies such as the Attorney-General’s Chambers, the police, the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) and the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC).

They further claimed that Najib had acted in bad faith to undermine, or cause to compromise various respective institutions involved in the probe of 1MDB scandals related to the remittance of RM2.6 billion and RM42 million or any other amount into the PM's personal bank accounts.

Mahathir, Anina and Khairuddin claimed that 1MDB was set up in 2009 but between 2010 and 2013, there were various reports on allegations of serious financial impropriety concerning 1MDB.

The trio had also filed a mareva injunction application to freeze Najib's assets of RM2.64 billion and another order of discovery for Najib to list out or itemise his assets.