PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has ordered Sungai Siput Member of Parliament S. Kesavan to pay RM80,000 in damages to his former parliamentary research officer Indrani Ramasamy for defamation.
A three-member panel, comprising Justices Datuk Seri Kamaludin Md Said, Datuk Hashim Hamzah and Datuk Collin Lawrence Sequeira made the ruling after allowing Indrani’s appeal over the High Court’s decision which dismissed her suit against Kesavan.
In the proceedings conducted via Zoom, the panel also ordered Kesavan to pay RM20,000 in costs to Indrani, who was represented by counsel Rueben Mathiavaranam, while lawyer Azhar Arman Ali acted for Kesavan.
Rueben, when contacted, said the Appellate Court found that his client had successfully proven her case and held that the High Court judge had made an error by making a finding that Indrani and Kesavan were involved in dishonourable conduct without allowing the parties to make submissions on this point.
“Hence, the decision of the High Court is set aside and the Appellate Court ordered the respondent (Kesavan) to pay Indrani damages in the global sum of RM80,000,“ he said.
High Court judge Datuk Azimah Omar (now the Court of Appeal judge) when dismissing Indrani’s suit last year, said public policy dictated that the court shall not expend any time or resources to give any remedies to parties who come before the court with utter deception to conceal their immoral acts and engagements.
She said that in view of the parties’ disingenuous and deceptive attitude before the court, and the undeniable truth and fact of the parties’ sordid, immoral, and inappropriate extramarital affair, the court can never countenance such immoral behaviours to muddy its walls and floor.
Indrani filed the suit on July 16, 2019, following Kesavan’s public statement claiming that Indrani was the one who pursued him, wanted to wreck his marriage and that her accusation had caused him mental trauma.
Indrani also lodged a police report claiming Kesavan had been sexually harassing her since December 2018.-Bernama
