Sistem Televisyen (M) Bhd or TV3 was granted leave by the Federal Court today to raise the possibility of bias in the Court of Appeal decision against it in the suit by former Perak menteri besar Mohamad Nizar Jamaluddin.

A five-member panel of the court led by Court of Appeal President  Md Raus Shariff allowed leave (permission) to hear only one out of eight questions raised by TV3.

"We will allow leave on only one question," the court ruled.

This question is whether there was bias, or real danger of bias, in the Court of Appeal coram having regard to the chairperson of the coram having a relationship with (rather, knowing) Nizar.

The other judges who sat with Justice Md Raus ( right ) were Chief Judge of Sabah and Sarawak Richard Malanjum, and Federal Court judges Suriyadi Halim Omar, Ahmad Ma'arop and Md Apandi Ali.

TV3 initially won when Nizar's defamation suit over the licence plate issue was dismissed by the High Court in Kuala Lumpur. However, the Court of Appeal allowed Nizar's appeal and the damages are to be assessed.

The Court of Appeal bench, which made the decision last year, was led by Justice Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof, and included Justice David Wong Dak Wah and Justice Abang Iskandar Abang Hashim.

Justice Wong and Justice Abang Iskandar wrote separate judgments on the matter.

TV3's counsel Liew Teck Huat had submitted the possibility of the element of bias on grounds that Justice Ariff was a PAS member and could have known Nizar.

“Justice Ariff had recused himself when hearing Nizar's application for a judicial review application in 2009 that he (Nizar) was the rightful Perak menteri besar. He recused himself then and should have recused himself now,” Liew argued.

Before this, the TV3 counsel told the court, he did not know about Justice Ariff, resulting in Nizar's appeal to proceed in the appellate court until a decision was made.

Nizar's lawyer Fitri Asmuni said that could have been in 2009, but this appeal was in 2014.

To this, Justice Suriyadi said there is public perception of the judiciary and it should avoid any element of bias.

“What would the rakyat or public say,” he asked, while Justice Md Raus asked Fitri whether he agreed that the case should be remitted back to another Court of Appeal panel, to which the lawyer gave the same answer.

This resulted in Justice Md Raus granting leave for the TV3 bid and allowing only one question to be raised.

Utusan's appeal to be fixed after TV3 hearing

Umno-owned daily Utusan Malaysia , which was also ordered to pay damages of RM250,000 to Nizar following the newspaper's reaction to the same tweet on the WWW 1 car licence plate issue, was also a party to today's proceeding for leave.

Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin appeared for Utusan , while Fitri and Mohd Zamri Ibrahim appeared for Nizar.

However, Justice Md Raus said Utusan would have to await the Federal Court decision in the TV3 case for consistency in the apex court's judgment.

Following this, the panel adjourned the case to a date to be fixed.

Nizar won the defamation suit against Utusan in the High Court in Kuala Lumpur, with the Malay daily ordered to pay RM250,000 after the court found its reporter to have failed to verify the tweet with the former Perak MB.

This decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal, resulting in the move today by Utusan to seek leave to appeal this decision.