Court dismisses Haniff Khatri's application for summary judgement in RM12.5m suit against Bersatu
24 May 2022, 12:19 pm
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Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla (File photo by Sam Fong/The Edge)

KUALA LUMPUR (May 24): Lawyer Mohamed Haniff Khatri Abdulla's application for a summary judgement in his RM12.5 million suit against Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) for alleged non-payment of legal fees has been dismissed.

High Court judge Datuk Akhtar Tahir dismissed the application on Tuesday (May 24) and ordered the counsel to pay RM3,000 in cost to Bersatu.

Bersatu's counsel Chetan Jethwani confirmed this with theedgemarkets.com when contacted.

With this dismissal the matter will now go for full trial to hear the merits of the case. The trial is slated to be from March 18 to 22, 2024.

Meanwhile, Haniff said he will be filing an appeal against this decision in due course.

Haniff filed an application for a summary judgement in January this year, wanting the court to make a decision based on affidavits and legal documents without the matter going to full trial.

He filed the main suit against Bersatu in July 2021. Besides the party, its president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, secretary-general Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin and treasurer Datuk Mohamed Salleh Bajuri were named as defendants.  

In his statement of claim, Haniff claimed that he had helped the party in legal matters since its inception in 2016, under then Bersatu president and former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

He added that he provided legal advice on Bersatu's formation to take on the Barisan Nasional government led by then premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Among others, Haniff said he provided legal advice and helped draft Bersatu's constitution and letters of correspondence, besides assisting in the set-up of the party’s pro-tem committee members and attended to a challenge to its registration by the Registrar of Societies (RoS) during Najib's premiership.

Haniff said he provided advice to Bersatu from time to time until February 2020 when the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government collapsed following the 'Sheraton Move'.

It was reported that the defendants wanted the suit to be dismissed as there was no agreement between the parties. They added that all services rendered were voluntary without expectation of payment.

Edited BySurin Murugiah
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