A five-man bench chaired by Court of Appeal president Zulkefli Ahmad Makinudin said there was no merit in the appeal and as such there was no necessity to answer the three questions of law.

“We remit the case to the High Court for assessment of damages,” he said of the unanimous decision.

However, no costs were awarded to The Edge Communications Sdn Bhd.

Lawyer Darryl Goon, appearing for the publisher, said a case management would be held on the matter before a court registrar tomorrow.

FMT understands the damages suffered could be “fairly substantial” due to losses in advertising and circulation revenue over the period.

The government’s appeal collapsed mainly because it did not file an appeal on liability.

On Aug 30, last year, the Court of Appeal allowed the publisher to claim damages.

It also upheld the finding of liability by the High Court on Sept 21, 2015.

The three-man bench was chaired by Mohd Zawawi Salleh.

Goon told the court that the Home Ministry had acted in “reckless indifference” on the suspension.

He argued the government had breached Section 7 (1) of the Printing Presses and Publication Act 1984 (PPPA) and the publisher was not given the right to be heard.

The Edge, daily and weekly editions, were suspended on July 27, 2015 following their reports on the trouble-stricken 1MDB.

The suspension was made under Section 7 of the PPPA. The home ministry claimed the articles on 1MDB were prejudicial to public order, national security and likely to alarm public opinion.

Among other things, the High Court ruled that the home minister was himself “in doubt” as to whether The Edge had published its articles by relying on allegedly unverified information on online news portals, especially Sarawak Report.

The suspension order came three weeks after Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi announced on July 1 that a show-cause letter had been issued to the publisher.