Senator wins libel suit against Ramasamy on appeal

Lingeshwaran said High Court judge Azlan Sulaiman set aside the sessions court’s April 30 ruling, which dismissed his lawsuit and ordered him to pay RM15,000 in costs.

“Instead, the High Court granted an injunction barring Ramasamy from repeating or republishing the statements that were the subject of the suit.

“The court ordered Ramasamy to pay me RM15,000 in costs and returned the matter to the Butterworth sessions court for assessment of damages,” he said in a statement today.

In the defamation suit, sessions court judge Zulhazmi Abdullah ordered Lingeshwaran to pay RM15,000 in costs, finding that Ramasamy had successfully raised the defences of fair comment and qualified privilege.

The suit concerned two remarks by Ramasamy in a Malaysiakini article published on May 2, 2024, following a public debate over opening Universiti Teknologi Mara’s cardiothoracic surgery postgraduate programme with the National Heart Institute to non-Malays to address a shortage of heart surgeons.

In the article, Malaysiakini sought Ramasamy’s responses to Lingeshwaran’s objection to the proposal.

The two remarks disputed by Lingeshwaran were: “Lingeshwaran doesn’t have basic common sense. He should be welcoming the move” and “Obviously, it’s not appropriate for Lingeshwaran to be in the medical profession.”

In his ruling, Zulhazmi said the first remark was not defamatory but amounted to criticism made in the course of political debate. He said the second remark was capable of being defamatory as it touched on Lingeshwaran’s professional standing as a doctor, but was protected by fair comment and qualified privilege.

Zulhazmi also said Lingeshwaran failed to prove that Ramasamy acted with malice, noting that Lingeshwaran was the only witness to testify and no other witnesses were called to establish actual or inferred malice.