PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal today granted politician Jamal Yunos a conditional stay of an order requiring that he pay RM300,000 in damages to Teresa Kok.
The three-member bench comprising Justices Datuk Yaacob Md Sam, Datuk Gunalan Muniandy and Datuk Azimah Omar granted Jamal a stay of the court order after finding merits in his application.
They also ordered no cost to the application.
However, the judges ordered Jamal to deposit the RM300,000 judgment sum into Teresa's solicitors' account.
"And (it is) to be held as a stakeholder for the parties pending the disposal of the appeal before the Court of Appeal. This account will carry interest," he said.
The judges also ordered the sum to be deposited within 21 days.
Earlier today, counsel Rejinder Singh, who appeared for Jamal submitted that his client would go bankrupt if he paid the judgment sum, including the RM50,000 in cost.
Therefore, he argued that such consequences will disrupt his chances of standing in any state election or by-election.
However, Azimah then questioned Rejinder on the crux of Jamal's application for a stay of a court order, as he claimed in his affidavit that he had the funds.
"In your affidavit, you said you have the money, and that you have the available funds. So we're asking what's the position now?
"It is either you are protecting your interest in the political arena, although you have the money, or you don't (have the money) at all.
"So, you cannot have two ways about it now.
"Because once you have the money, then in order to protect your client's political activity, then we can put a conditional stay on the application. So why do you have to sit on it?"
This prompted Rejinder to submit that he is guided by the court's order if the stay is conditional and that he will inform so to his client.
However, Kok's counsel, Datuk S.N. Nair, submitted that the fear of being declared bankrupt was not a special circumstance.
"He (Jamal) has already said he's got the money and he also said he had done some fundraising. I think he should just pay up.
"All these fears, My Lords, all the applicants have to do is just settle."
Judicial Commissioner Datuk Mohd Arief Emran Arifin, on July 26 last year, granted Kok a general aggravated and exemplary sum of RM300,000, and RM50,000 in costs with five per cent interest after winning a defamation suit filed against Jamal.
She filed the suit on April 6, 2017, over Jamal's alleged defamatory statement pertaining to the misuse of Yayasan Warisan Anak Selangor (Yawas) funds during a press conference on March 8, 2017.
However, the High Court, on March 21 this year, rejected Jamal's application for a stay of the court order in making the payments.