This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on November 27, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court has directed former prime minister and former finance minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak to file his defence by Dec 30 after a suit filed by Damansara member of parliament Tony Pua against him over misfeasance in public office involving 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) was reinstated by the Federal Court last week.

The suit will now be heard before a new High Court judge, Justice Datuk Rozana Ali Yusoff.

The matter was revealed by Pua’s lawyer Tan Cheng Leong to The Edge Financial Daily.

Appearing for Najib was lawyer Nor Hazira Abu Haiyan, while senior federal counsel Habibah Haron appeared for the government. Tan said Pua had yet to make a decision on whether to proceed with the suit, but the court had fixed the date for Najib to file his defence.

“A case management date of Jan 6, 2020 has been fixed following the submission of Najib’s defence,” he said. The case managed yesterday was heard before Federal Court deputy registrar Syahrin Jeli Bohari. Last week, a Federal Court bench in a judgement overturned a decision by the High Court and the Court of Appeal to strike out Pua’s suit and reinstated it on the grounds the prime minister and ministers can be sued for misfeasance as they are public officers and the government can be held vicariously liable.

The apex court bench was led by Chief Justice Tan Sri Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat, but the written unanimous judgement was made by Justice Datuk P Nalini.

The decision last week departed from an earlier decision made by the apex court in Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Datuk Seri Khairuddin Abu Hassan’s similar suit against Najib on the same 1MDB matter which ruled that Najib was not a public officer but a member of the administration.

Najib is facing four charges of abuse of power and 21 charges of money laundering in relation to 1MDB where the trial is before Justice Collin Lawrence Sequerah.

In last week’s decision, Justice Nalini answered two questions of law in the affirmative:

1. Does the tort of misfeasance in public office apply to the prime minister as a public officer?

2. Can the government be vicariously liable for the acts of Datuk Seri Najib Razak if the tort is proven against him under the Government Proceedings Act 1956?

Pua in January 2017 sued then prime minister Najib and the government for wrongful use of public authority. He alleged that Najib had abused public office and benefitted from receiving money from 1MDB.