KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here has ordered PJ Utara MP Tony Pua to pay Syabas RM200,000 in damages over a defamation suit.
Justice Amelia Tee Hong Geok Abdullah ruled in favour of the water concessionaire and also dismissed the DAP national publicity secretary’s counter-claim in relation to an article published in a Chinese daily.
“After due consideration of the evidence adduced by both parties, the Court finds that the plaintiff (Syabas) has succeeded in making out its case against the defendant on a balance of probabilities,” she said in her 49-page written grounds of judgment.
She also granted Syarikat Bekalan Air Selangor Sdn Bhd an injunction restraining Pua or his agents from further publishing the defamatory words.
The judge rejected Pua’s defence of qualified privilege, saying he had failed to give pertinent details about the defendants in his speech, which resulted in it being defamatory.
“The defence would have been available to him (Pua) had he, in his speech, conveyed the reasons why the plaintiff was unable to replace the water pipes,’’ said Justice Amelia.
She also rejected Pua’s defence of justification and fair comment, and said Pua, as an MP, had a responsibility to spread information fairly.
In the lawsuit filed on Jan 28 last year, Syabas claimed that Pua had permitted Nanyang Siang Pau’s Metro edition to publish words defamatory of it in an article on Nov 16, 2010, titled “Tony Pua: Selangor government must have water rights to prevent rate hike”.
In the statement of claim, Syabas said the article meant that it was incompetent in managing water supply rights, given its inability to repay its debts and to replace pipes.
Pua later filed a counter-claim against Syabas on March 14.--TheStar
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