PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal has affirmed the High Court's decision to strike out a suit by carpet dealer JR Deepak Jaikishan against Datuk Seri Najib Razak, his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor and Baling Member of Parliament Datuk Seri Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim.
The suit which was filed by Deepak together with his company Carpet Raya Sdn Bhd and his brother Rajesh Jaiksihan was overtax arrears imposed on them for being proxies to the couple.
In a unanimous decision today, a three-man bench led by judge Datuk Mohamad Zabidin Mohd Diah ruled that the suit was obviously unsustainable and was bound to fail if it was to proceed for trial.
He said the High Court judicial commissioner was correct in finding that the suit was a plain and obvious case for striking out.
"Hence, we find no merit in the appeal and the appeal is hereby dismissed.
"The decision of the High Court is affirmed," he said.
The other judges who also presided in the proceedings which was conducted via Zoom were Datuk Azizah Nawawi and Datuk S.Nantha Balan.
On July 16 last year, the Kuala Lumpur High Court allowed an application by Najib, Rosmah and Abdul Azeez to strike out the suit against them on grounds that the plaintiffs' case was obviously unsustainable.
Judicial commissioner Quay Chew Soon made the decision after finding that the statement of claim does not disclose a reasonable cause of action as the essential elements to sustain the claims for conspiracy to injure, misfeasance in public office and breach of duty of care.
The three had filed the striking out application on Sept 24, 2019, on grounds that the suit was vexatious and the plaintiffs had no cause to sue them.
In the statement of claim filed on Nov 15, 2018, Deepak who is director of Carpet Raya, claimed that between 2004 and 2010, he and the company had acted as proxies to Najib and Rosmah in transactions of land deals which benefited the couple among others in millions of Ringgit in profit.
Deepak claimed that the third defendant (Abdul Azeez) had acted as an agent and middle man to the couple to make the transactions with Carpet Raya.
He claimed that the transactions had caused the Inland Revenue Board (IRB) to send a letter dated March 2, 2018, to him to settle the outstanding tax payment amounting to RM6 million which did not include the increased penalty tax and interest.
The plaintiffs claimed that they were asked to pay the tax arrears in instalments for 24 months beginning January 2018 until December 2019 in line with the decision of the Finance Ministry through a letter dated Sept 21, 2017.
They also claimed that the couple had ordered the IRB to take legal action against Carpet Raya and a winding up petition that was filed against the company on March 22, 2017, by IRB was published in the newspapers.
Deepak contended that the petition had caused his reputation to be injured and had caused him to be banned from travelling out of the country.
He claimed that his trading facility had been withdrawn by Maybank and the company's contract with IKEA was terminated as a consequence of the winding up petition.
Therefore, they had sought a declaration that Najib and Rosmah are the ones responsible to make the outstanding tax payment imposed on them and the company.
Among others, they sought damages of RM500,000 which had been paid to Maybank as well as damages of RM47 million for Carpet Raya's inability to fulfil contractual obligations and sale.
They have also sought for RM74 million in damages over the termination of the company's contract with IKEA as well as RM37 million damages for the losses incurred as a result of misfeasance by Najib.
