KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here yesterday dismissed a defamation suit filed by a halfway house operator and his wife against the Kuala Lumpur Welfare Department director.
The case pertained to the director’s alleged statement in The Star newspaper that the shelter for women and teenagers, ‘Pusat Kebahagian Wanita dan Remaja’, was not registered.
Judicial Commissioner Vazeer Alam Mydin Meera made the decision after finding that Yahya Mohamed Yusof and Ruzitah Bahrum had failed to prove their case against Noormah Abd Rauf, and the government whom they also named as a defendant.
The court also ordered the plaintiffs to pay RM40,000 costs to the defendants.
Senior federal counsel Zureen Elina Mohd Dom had earlier sought for RM60,000 for the defendants, submitting that the case concerned public
interest.
In his judgement, Vazeer Alam said it was required by law for plaintiffs in a defamation case to substantiate their allegations.
He said the first defendant (Noormah) also had the moral and social obligation under the law to alert the public about the unregistered centre.
“Hence the first defendant was justified in making the statement, while the society have a ‘common interest privilege’ to receive such information,” he said.
On June 14 last year, Yahya and Ruzitah sued Noormah for her alleged defamatory statement in The Star newspaper dated Nov 12, 2012, under the heading, ‘Welfare Dept: Halfway house did nothing to register its shelter’.
The couple were represented by counsel Ellia Zuraini Mat Zain. — Bernama