Mum loses final appeal in defamation case filed by sons
A three-member Court of Appeal bench chaired by Justice Azimah Omar said the High Court did not err in upholding a Sessions Court ruling that V.T. Menaka had lowered the reputation of M. Natarajen and M. Satishkumar, through a video posted on Facebook.
"There is no appealable error that warrants appellate intervention.
"Unfortunately, the sons had to take their mother to court," she said, adding that the plaintiffs had proved all the elements of libel.
She said the 30-minute Tamil-language video, accompanied by a derogatory caption, had harmed the reputation of Menaka's sons.
She said the appellant's defence of justification and fair comment is also not applicable.
The other judges on the bench are Justices Wong Kian Kheong and Ismail Brahim.
The court also ordered Menaka, 67, to pay RM20,000 in costs to her sons.
Lawyer M. Manoharan, who represented Natarajen, 42, and Satishkumar, 41, said Menaka was classified as bankrupt after she had failed to pay the judgment sum and costs of RM10,750 as rdered by the Seremban Sessions Court in 2023.
Menaka was ordered to pay RM100,000 in damages each to the sons.
"She filed this appeal after obtaining consent from the Insolvency Department," he said.
Lawyer Asmawi Ismail appeared for Menaka.
In the posting made on Sept 19, 2020, Menaka claimed that her sons were 'big time' criminals, had forged her signature to remove her as a director of their family company Linsun Group of Companies Malaysia and wanted to kill her with a pistol.
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