The Federal Court today granted leave (permission) for Senator S Nallakaruppan to appeal against the striking-out of his defence in Anwar Ibrahim's RM50 million defamation suit.

Nallakaruppan was represented by Muhammad Shafee Abdullah and lawyer and MP Sivarasa Rasiah appeared for the opposition leader.

                                    

The Kuala Lumpur High Court had struck out Nallakaruppan's defence and the Court of Appeal had upheld the decision.

High Court judge Su Geok Yiam found Nallakaruppan to be held liable for defamation after striking out his defence.  

NONE She also ordered Nallakaruppan to pay damages to Anwar, to be assessed by the deputy registrar. That was before the leave application fixed today.

Central to the issue is the alleged defamatory remarks made by Nallakaruppan, who is also the Malaysian Indian United Party president, in the article 'Anwar terima RM60 juta ' (Anwar receives RM60 million) which was published in Mingguan Malaysia and Sinar Harian in Aug 2008.

The five-member panel led by Court of Appeal president Md Raus Sharif has granted permission based on two out of four questions of law which would be posed in court during the appeal, at a later date.

The other members of the bench were Chief Judge of Malaya Zulkefli Ahmad Makinuddin, Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak, Richard Malanjum and Federal Court judges Ahmad Maarop and Zaleha Zahari.

The first question concerned whether the better and additional particulars in Nallakaruppan's defence can be made by way of an affidavit rather then a full defence statement.

Secondly, whether the better and additional particulars in the defendant's defence ought to undergo a strict and objective test rather than a subjective test following the events (allegation that Anwar got the money) happened in 1999 and that the authorities had seized most of Nallakaruppan's documents.

This follows as submitted by Shafee that his client had been detained by the authorities on a possession of a firearm in 1999.

Nallakaruppan had alleged that he gave the RM60 million to Anwar in 1999, a claim which the opposition leader had denied.

Sivarasa told the Federal Court today that the High Court and Court of Appeal had rightfully rejected Nallakaruppan's defence as the defence had deliberately tried to avoid providing the particulars in the pleadings.

Sivarasa said you cannot put it in your pleadings (defence statement) but not be able to provide the particulars to make the assertion.