KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court ruled today that Datuk Seri Azmin Ali did not defame egg importer J&E Advance over claims it received an egg import project from India via direct negotiation by the government.
High Court judge Leong Wai Hong made this ruling when dismissing the company's defamation suit against the former minister today.
The court said that Azmin's remarks referred only to businessperson Deepak Jaikishan and did not mention the company in the suit.
"Deepak is not even a shareholder or director in the company.
"I am of the view it would be unreasonable for a person to believe that the plaintiff was mentioned in the statement.
"The defendant mentioned Deepak's name many times. Deepak is neither a shareholder nor director of the plaintiff," said the judge.
The court also ordered the company to pay RM50,000 in costs to the former senior minister.
Lawyer Bhavanash Sharma who appeared for J&E Advance said they would appeal against the decision.
Azmin was represented by lawyer Nizamuddin Abdul Hamid.
The company in its statement of claim alleged Azmin's statements made during a ceramah were defamatory and the impugned statement implied that J&E Advance Tech was a dishonest company.
The company alleged Azmin had uttered the statement in bad faith and tried to incite the public against them. It claimed the impugned statement was pre-meditated to injure the plaintiff's character and reputation.
The company is seeking general, exemplary and aggravated damages from Azmin. It is also seeking a court order to stop Azmin from repeating the impugned statement.
On March 12, during a PN ceramah at Pas' base in Taman Melewar, Azmin alleged that the government had awarded the project to import eggs from India via direct negotiations.
He claimed that the direct award of the contract contradicted the promise of an open tender process made by the unity government led by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Azmin also claimed that the minister in charge, Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu, had taken the businessman involved in his visit to India recently.
On Feb 28, Mohamad was reported to have said that only one company was permitted to import eggs from India and that the move was taken to deal with the lack of supply of eggs in the local market.
However, when answering a question from Putrajaya MP Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin in parliament, Mohamad admitted that the company that imported eggs from India did not go through the open tender process because it was a "special case."