KUALA LUMPUR: The appeal hearing for Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and his son, Datuk Mohd Nazifuddin on the High Court’s dismissal of their application to stay bankruptcy proceedings has been set for Jan 6.

The bankruptcy proceedings were initiated after they failed to settle RM1.69 billion and RM37.6 million in tax arrears respectively.

Their lawyer, Wee Yeong Kang, said the appeal was filed on Aug 6.

“The appeal will be heard before High Court Judicial Commissioner Suhendran Sockanathan @ Saheran Abdullah via Zoom,” Wee said when contacted today.

On Oct 16 last year, the Federal Court ruled that the duo must settle the unpaid taxes after dismissing their appeal to quash the High Court’s decision against them.

Najib and his son had appealed against two High Court decisions to allow the Inland Revenue Board’s (IRB) application to enter summary judgments over the income tax arrears case.

A summary judgment is obtained when the court decides on a case through written submissions without a full trial and calling witnesses.

Two separate High Courts had allowed the IRB’s applications to enter summary judgments to recover tax arrears from the duo for the period between 2011 and 2017.

Both Najib and Mohd Nazifuddin lost their appeals in the Court of Appeal in September 2021 to set aside the summary judgments.

On May 10, 2022, the Federal Court granted them leave to pursue their appeals with the Federal Court.