Justice Amarjeet Singh said the assessment of damages would not affect the outcome of the government’s appeal, which the Court of Appeal is scheduled to hear on April 24.

Earlier, senior federal counsel Shahidah Nafisah Leman informed the High Court that an appeal had been filed against its decision last year.

She was seeking to halt proceedings to assess losses suffered by Boey pending the outcome of the government’s appeal.

Lawyer Gregory Das appeared for Boey.

In September 2023, the home ministry banned the book, published in 2014, following protests by an Indonesian NGO in the republic.

The government said Boey’s book contained material “likely to be prejudicial to morality”, and ordered its sale to cease under Section 7(1) of the Printing Presses and Publications Act 1984.

Boey previously said “When I Was A Kid 3” was about his childhood.

In the chapter that may have sparked the controversy, he recounted how his former Indonesian helper scaled a coconut tree at impressive speed, leading to a remark made by his father that some readers may have found offensive.

Boey said his intention was not to offend anyone but to commend the skills displayed by the woman.