Umno-owned Utusan Malaysia is trying to consolidate a suit where it was ordered to pay RM250,000 to Mohd Nizar Jamaluddin with another where the latter won against TV3  following defamatory reports carried by the two media.

The former Perak menteri besar ( right ) had taken up and won separate defamation suits against the two pertaining to news reports over his tweets regarding the WWW1 license plate issue.

The application was submitted at the Federal Court via a notice of motion and it will hear the application as well as TV3's application for leave to appeal, on Aug 6.

In the TV3 case, the Court of Appeal found the television station had defamed Mohd Nizar and ordered it to pay damages to be assessed by the Kuala Lumpur High Court.

The matter came up for case management on Tuesday, where Nizar's lawyer Fitri Asmuni confirmed the date with Malaysiakini, and said that TV3's lawyers had no objection to Utusan Malaysia's application for the consolidation application to be heard.

Fitri also informed that TV3 or Sistem Televisyen (M) Bhd had also filed a notice of motion dated March 6, seeking to set-aside the Court of Appeal’s judgment.

He said the matter will be heard at the appellate court on July 17.

“TV3's lawyers filed the application at the Court of Appeal and this is besides the appeal proper which they also filed at the Federal Court scheduled on Aug 6,” he said.

It was reported that TV3 wanted a review of the appellate court’s decision as it alleged that Justice Mohd Arif Mohd Yusof, one of the judges who chaired the panel hearing the appeal, was a PAS member and should have recused himself from hearing the case.

The television station claimed Justice Mohd Ariff had contested in the 2004 general election under the PAS ticket and continued to be active in the party even after he lost in the election.

“His Lordship was even an elected committee member of the PAS' liaison for Selangor for the 2007 to 2009 session,” the notice of motion and affidavit in support from TV3 stated.

It added the proceeding should be before a three-member panel and if Justice Mohd Ariff is disqualified there will be inadequate quorum.

Nizar had filed two separate suits against Utusan Malaysia and TV3 over the license plate issue where he claimed his tweets had been twisted by the two media organisation.

The former Perak menteri besar won his suit against Utusan Malaysia at the Kuala Lumpur High Court, and this was upheld by the Court of Appeal last year, where it found the daily’s reporter had practised unfair reporting by not first contacting Nizar to verify his tweets.

TV3 initially won its case at the KL High Court but lost unanimously on appeal on the grounds that the court found there was malice in its reports and the defence of justification failed.