Chief Judge of Malaya Azahar Mohamed said the three-member bench was of the opinion that the appeal was academic.
“Courts do not answer questions of law posed when the matter is academic,” he said, adding that Najib had withdrawn his suit against Pua in the High Court on July 30, 2018.
He was joined on the bench by Mohd Zawawi Salleh and Mary Lim Thiam Suan.
They made no order as to costs although Najib’s lawyer Mohd Hafarizam Harun asked for RM30,000.
Yesterday, another Federal Court bench dismissed Pua’s leave application to appeal against a Court of Appeal ruling last year allowing Najib to withdraw the defamation suit against the DAP leader.
Najib sued Pua in his personal capacity on April 21, 2017, claiming Pua had made defamatory statements against him in a video relating to the tabling of a private member’s bill to amend the Syariah Courts (Criminal Jurisdiction) Act 1965 (RUU 355).
Najib claimed the two-minute, 21-second video clip uploaded on Pua’s Facebook page titled “BN Govt abandons all bills to give precedence to PAS’ RUU355 Private Member’s Bill” could be accessed widely and freely on the internet.
He also claimed the video contained words referring specifically to him and implying that he had abused his power by giving orders through the Cabinet to the Dewan Rakyat speaker to give way to Marang MP Abdul Hadi Awang to propose the bill.
In his video, Pua had called the tabling of the bill a charade to divert attention from the 1MDB fiasco and the RM2.6 billion found in Najib’s private accounts.
On Aug 4, 2017, judge Mohd Zaki Abdul Wahab allowed Najib’s application for an injunction to order Pua to remove the video from his Facebook page until the outcome of the defamation suit.
On Feb 14, 2018, the Court of Appeal upheld Zaki’s injunction ruling but four months later, the Federal Court allowed Pua’s leave application to appeal.
The matter was scheduled to be heard today.
Soon after the 14th general election in May 2018, Zaki allowed Najib to withdraw his defamation suit but ordered the Pekan MP to pay Pua RM30,000 in costs.
Pua then appealed to the Court of Appeal against the High Court ruling allowing Najib to withdraw the suit as the outcome of the injunction had not been decided.
On Oct 15 last year, a bench chaired by Hamid Sultan Abu Backer said the High Court should have awarded Pua damages for the injunction obtained by Najib.
Although Pua was unhappy over this decision, the Federal Court yesterday refused to give him leave, saying he had failed to cross the threshold of Section 96 of the Courts of Judicature Act for the merit of his appeal to be heard.
“The issue raised is specific to the facts of this case,” said Nallini Pathmanathan, who sat with Zabariah Yusof and Rhodzariah Bujang.
Lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sarwar told reporters today that Pua was only now entitled to damages for the injunction pending an assessment by the High Court in Kuala Lumpur.