The Court of Appeal has yet to give its written grounds of judgment in Lim Guan Eng's suit against Perkasa information chief Ruslan Kassim, New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd and Utusan Malaysia to facilitate the Penang chief minister's leave to appeal the decision in the country's highest court.

Lim's lawyer, Americk Singh, told Malaysiakini this when contacted today, after a case management was held before Federal Court registrar Jumirah Marjuki.

“There will be a further case management on Sept 4, pending the release of the grounds of the Court of Appeal's decision on the matter,” Americk (photo) said.

Lim's appeal is being focussed now as the COA decided six months ago to adopt the principle in the case of Derbyshire County Council vs The Times Newspapers Ltd & Others (1993), which stated that local authorities cannot institute libel action in their official capacity.

Following the COA decision to adopt the UK case, when the two media companies cited the Pahang Menteri Besar Adnan Yaakob's suit against Utusan as a preliminary objection to the suit, the three-member bench ruled that Lim cannot sue the media in his official capacity.

The COA panel that made the decision in Adnan's case is the same one that sat in Lim's case.

Difference in the two cases

However, when Adnan's case was referred to the Federal Court for leave last February, the bench, led by then Chief Judge of Malaya Justice Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin, reinstated the Pahang MB's suit and ordered the matter to go on trial in the High Court.

The difference between Lim's case and Adnan's is that the former had gone through a trial in the High Court in Penang while the Pahang MB case has yet to start, as the COA allowed the striking-out application by Utusan on appeal.

Following that, the High Court in Kuala Lumpur fixed Aug 7 for this hearing.

Lim's appeal is being closely watched because several decisions are pending in the on-going suits filed by Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak against several individuals.

Former MCA president Dr Ling Liong Sik applied to strike out Najib's suit on the same grounds - that Najib seemed to be suing in his official capacity - but the High Court in Kuala Lumpur, which had already heard submissions on the matter, did not want to make a ruling on this, pending the decision in the Penang CM's appeal.

Lim's case has also been used to postpone several on-going suits by Najib, including the one against PAS journal Harakah, which published a report on 1MDB and his stepson, Riza Aziz, based on a New York Times article.