The Kuala Lumpur High Court has ordered Sungai Besar Umno division chief Jamal Md Yunos to file his defence in a defamation suit brought against him by Maria Chin Abdullah.

This came after the Bersih chairperson's lawyer informed deputy registrar Norfauzani Mohd Nordin that they were applying for substituted service, since attempts to serve the legal notice to Jamal were unsuccessful.

Then, the lawyers of Jamal, who is the leader of the red-shirts, also appeared before Norfauzani.

"Following that, the court ordered Jamal to file his defence by Dec 2 and for us to submit a reply to the defence by Dec 16,” said Maria's lawyer, Melissa Sasidaran.

The matter has been fixed for case management before Justice Mohd Zaki Abdul Wahab on Dec 27.

The lawyer said the court has also ordered Jamal to file any applications before Dec 27.

Maria filed the suit following Jamal's claim that the coalition for clean and free elections was infiltrated by the Islamic State.

Jamal had made the allegations against Bersih at a press conference on Sep 28 and again on Oct 4 when he lodged a police report over the matter.

Maria had previously said Jamal was avoiding her lawyers' attempts to serve him the legal notice.

She proceeded with the suit after Jamal tore her letter of demand and flushed it down a toilet on Oct 5.

The letter of demand from Bersih asked that Jamal apologise within 48 hours for alleging that the movement had been infiltrated by IS and intends to use the Nov 19 Bersih 5 rally to topple the government.