Petaling Jaya Utara MP Tony Pua's application to strike out Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's defamation suit scheduled for hearing at the Kuala Lumpur High Court today has been deferred pending a Federal Court decision on whether a public servant can file such a suit.

The question of law on that issue will be heard by the apex court in the case between Pahang Menteri Besar Adnan Yaakob and Utusan Malaysia on Feb 13.

As such, Pua's lawyer Gobind Singh Deo said Judicial Commissioner Roslan A Bakar has scheduled a date for case management two days after the hearing at the Federal Court.

“The matter today has been postponed pending a decision in the Adnan Yaakob's case as our grounds for striking out are quite similar with that case.

“The question arose whether a public official can sue following the adoption of the Derbyshire principle,” he said.

Najib was represented by lawyers Mohd Hafarizam Harun and M Reza Hassan. Reza was also the lawyer who appeared for Utusan in Adnan's case.

In a landmark decision, Court of Appeal in Adnan's case ruled that politicians cannot sue the media for defamation for criticising persons in their capacity as public figures, following the principle in Derbyshire County vs Times Newspapers Ltd case.

Meanwhile, former MCA president Dr Ling Liong Sik is also waiting for the outcome of Pahang MB's case in his bid to strike out Najib's suit against him.

Besides Adnan's case, another point of referral is the suit by the Sarawak government against Kuching MP Chong Chien Jien which is also at appeal stage in the Federal Court.

In this case, the Court of Appeal in a majority decision, decided that state and federal governments can now sue any person for alleged defamatory remarks made against them.

Last month, the appellate court ruled that Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng cannot sue the media for defamation in his official capacity.

Najib is suing Pua and Media Rakyat owner Chan Chee Kong over a video put up on YouTube, in which the DAP national publicity secretary accused the prime minister of stealing money and that he would continue to steal money from 1MDB.

Najib filed the suit on March 5, 2015, in his personal capacity.