PUTRAJAYA (Oct 19): Former Pasir Salak member of Parliament Datuk Seri Tajuddin Abdul Rahman has been ordered to pay a total of RM120,000 to former Shah Alam MP Khalid Abdul Samad and video portal KiniTV Sdn Bhd in relation to Tajuddin's 2017 defamation suit.
In a unanimous decision on Thursday (Oct 19), a three-member Court of Appeal (COA) panel chaired by appellate court judge Datuk Nantha Balan ES Moorthy set aside the portion of the High Court ruling regarding costs and granted RM60,000 in cost to each appellant.
"[After consulting] my panel members, we feel [that] it is fair and reasonable in the circumstances, [that] that part of the High Court judgement depriving [Khalid and KiniTV] for cost is set aside," he said.
He added that the global cost consisted of the cost of the trial, leave application and for Thursday's proceedings.
The others on the panel were COA judges Datuk Mohd Nazlan Mohd Ghazali and Datuk Choo Kah Sing.
High Court did not award cost as matter was of public interest
In September 2022, the COA unanimously allowed a leave application by Khalid and KiniTV to seek costs from Tajuddin.
This comes after the High Court dismissed Tajuddin's defamation suit against the two and New Straits Times Press (M) Bhd (NSTP) in February last year without awarding cost.
Then judicial commissioner Datuk Seri Latifah Mohd Tahar said she made no order as to cost as the case was a matter of public interest.
Subsequently, both Khalid and KiniTV filed the application before the appellate court.
In her ruling, Latifah said that Khalid's comments followed Tajuddin's "outrageous behaviour" with the use of "unparliamentary statements" against Seputeh MP Teresa Kok during the Parliamentary proceedings.
During the said proceeding, Tajuddin had referred to Kok in Parliament as "the only woman with a Kok", which prompted Khalid to respond by calling Tajuddin "sial" (cursed).
Latifah also said that KiniTV and NSTP were merely reporting the facts, and fulfilling their duties in the interest of the public.
Tajuddin did not appeal the High Court decision.
Nantha Balan: 'The public may be interested but that doesn't make it a public interest case'
At the onset of the brief proceedings on Thursday, Nantha Balan pointed out that the lower court judge had departed from the general practice by not awarding costs to the defendants in the matter.
He also said that the lower court judge had done this on her own volition without giving an opportunity for parties to submit on cost.
He added that the law is clear and it was a trite position that costs ought to be awarded.
The COA judge said that it was only in some circumstances that cost is not awarded due to behaviour of parties during the course of a case which the court may deemed to be disrespectful. But he added that this does not apply to the matter at hand.
"[If one is] departing from the general rule, then you must give grounds on why I'm depriving the defendants of cost. The only ground [Latifah] said [is] that it is a public interest case.
He questioned if this was indeed a public interest case but rather a private matter where Tajuddin sought to vindicate himself.
"Just because both are MPs trading barks and a media statement was made in the lobby ... that doesn’t make it a public interest case," he said.
The COA judge said that the defendants were entitled to cost because there was a lot of work involved, as the suit was filed in February 2017 and trial went on from 2019 to 2021.
Datuk Hasnal Rezua Merican, who represented Tajuddin on Thursday, said that he stood by his position at the High Court that cost should range between RM30,000 and RM50,000.
Meanwhile, Khalid's lawyer Sankara Nair and KiniTV's counsel K Shanmuga asked for RM70,000 in cost.
During proceedings on Thursday, Muzzamil Merican also appeared for Tajuddin while Jaden Phoon Wai Ken also appeared for Khalid.