Chief Justice Richard Malanjum granted leave to Pua today, saying the dispute on the definition of public officer was enough for the case to be heard at the highest court.
Pua had sued former prime minister Najib Razak over the 1MDB issue last year when the latter was still in power.
His lawyer Malik Imtiaz Sarwar said the Federal Court wished to clarify the situation.
“The court will now revisit Tun Mahathir’s earlier case in which it was decided that the prime minister is not a public officer,” he said, referring to Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s lawsuit against Najib over alleged tort of misfeasance and breach of fiduciary duty in public office.
The Federal Court allowed two questions to be tried in Pua’s full hearing, to be fixed on another date, namely whether the prime minister or other ministers constitute public officers under the Government Proceedings Act, and whether the definition of “public officer” should be confined to what is stipulated under the Federal Constitution and the Government Proceedings Act.
The DAP lawmaker claimed in his lawsuit that Najib had abused his public office in relation to 1MDB funds.
He sought a declaration that Najib had committed tort of misfeasance in public office and abused his office to personally profit from the funds.
In his statement of claim, he explained why 1MDB was set up, the transactions that took place in relation to the issuance of two bonds, and how part of the funds was allegedly transferred to Najib’s private accounts.
However, the High Court struck out his suit last year, saying he lacked the legal capacity as a taxpayer to sue 1MDB, whose majority shareholder is the finance ministry. The decision was affirmed this year by the Court of Appeal, which said Pua had failed to prove that Najib was a public officer.
In July, though, Mahathir said he and his Cabinet members were public officers and liable to be sued, regardless of the court ruling.
He added that the government would amend its code of ethics to reflect the status of public officers.
Najib faces 38 criminal charges for abuse of power, criminal breach of trust, corruption and money laundering in relation to 1MDB and its former subsidiary SRC International.