Cabbie Mohammad Daud Salleh, who has a problem regarding the duplication of his identity card, will have to wait longer over his suit against the government, which is appealing the Kuala Lumpur High Court’s decision last month to set aside its striking-out application.

The application was filed at the Court of Appeal today. The defendants, which comprise the National Registration Department (NRD) director-general, the Home Ministry and the government, also filed their defence in the suit, where the last day to do so was again today.

The matter came-up before Judicial Commissioner Lee Swee Seng, in his chambers today. Lawyer Mohammad Zaid Daud appeared for Daud while senior federal counsel Suhaila Harun appeared for the defendants.

Lee has asked the matter to go for a full trial after he dismissed the defendants’ striking-out application.

In dismissing the striking-out application, Lee found there is an element of negligence admitted by the defendants and that there is a reasonable cause of action for the matter to go for trial.

Suhaila, at the last session in open court, had admitted negligence on the part of the defendants resulting in the duplication of identity cards with the same name and identity card number.

“However, we have offered the plaintiff a new identity card with a new number with the middle digit bearing the number 36, replacing the original number 08 (from Perak),” she had said.

Mohammad Daud filed the lawsuit at the Kuala Lumpur High Court through the firm of Zulpadli & Edham on Jan 4 against the government, naming the former and current NRD director-generals, the Home Ministry and the Malaysian government as defendants.

Daud’s application

Apart from wanting the NRD to cancel the other duplicated IC number, he is also seeking reimbursement and exemplary damages over the department’s carelessness that has resulted in many fruitless trips to various government offices in sorting out the matter.

NONE Daud, 42 ( left ), in his statement of claim alleged the identification theft had resulted in him being wrongfully arrested back in 1992 or 1993 over an apparent brawl in Ipoh, which he said he did not know anything about. The police only released him after he insisted that it was a case of mistaken identity.

His problems did not end there as when he changed to a MyKad in 2007 he received a Road Transport Department summons addressed to his house in Gombak, saying that he had been ‘caught’ speeding in a car with the registration number WLY3910 - a car which Daud claims he never owned.

He then decided to conduct his own ‘investigations’, going to Bank Negara Malaysia and then Public Bank to check the loan status of the car, and to also present his case that he had neither taken a loan nor owned the car.

He also went to the RTD headquarters in Putrajaya, where he was shown a copy of a MyKad bearing the same number and name as his own, but with the photo and the address belonging to someone else.

Daud’s trip to the Commercial Crimes unit in Bukit Aman in April 2008 was also futile, when he alleged no investigations were conducted, to his knowledge.

It was only after two unknown men went to his house on July 29, 2008, to ‘renew the road tax’ for the WLY3910 car which they claimed to have bought, that Daud lodged a police report four days later.

He received calls from the bank, claiming that he had defaulted in ‘car loan repayments’, as well as several more traffic compounds for the car. He also went to the Public Complaints Bureau, which had also failed to follow-up on his grievances.

In 2009 when he engaged Karpal Singh as his lawyer, the NRD got back to him and offered him a new IC number, to which he did not consent.

Refusing to change his IC number - which would result in changing all his official accounts with the banks, his licences and even his four children’s particulars - he is now fuming that the NRD’s proposed solution is just a stop-gap measure which will cause more problems.

Daud, who was not present today, told Malaysiakini at the last session that he believes his dilemma is not the only such case in the country as there may be others who are in the same boat.