This follows the death of Thomas’s current lawyer, Gopal Sri Ram, yesterday.
Senior federal counsel Nur Irmawatie Daud said lawyer Haikaldin Mahyidin informed Justice Wan Ahmad Farid Wan Salleh that Thomas needed time to engage a new counsel.
“The judge has fixed the suit for case management on Feb 27 pending a new appointment,” she told FMT after an online proceeding.
The court was today scheduled to fix a date to hear the application by the task force and government to strike out the suit filed last October on the grounds that it was scandalous, frivolous, vexatious and an abuse of the court’s process.
Alternatively, the defendants want the court to use its inherent powers to strike out the suit to prevent an injustice.
Thomas, in response to the striking-out application, is contending that the task force had no legal standing to probe his book and that a report it released on the matter is illegal.
In his originating summons, Thomas named the federal government and all members of the task force as defendants.
In the suit, Thomas is contending that the publication of the report violates Sections 499 and 500 of the Penal Code and Section 233 of the Communications and Multimedia Act (CMA) 1998.
He says the publication of the task force’s report on his memoir entitled “My Story: Justice in the Wilderness” was a breach of law and his constitutional rights.
Thomas wants a declaration that the purported report, titled “Laporan Pasukan Petugas Khas – Siasatan Ke Atas Dakwaan-Dakwaan Dalam Buku Bertajuk ‘My Story: Justice in the Wilderness’”, produced by the task force, is an illegal document and not authorised by law.
He is also asking for a declaration that the government’s publication of the report violates his right to reputation which, he says, is protected by Articles 5(1) and 13(1) of the constitution.
The task force was established by former prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s Cabinet on Oct 8, 2021 to undertake a preliminary study of disclosures made by Thomas in his book, which was published in January 2021.
On Dec 22, 2021, the Cabinet approved the task force’s terms of reference, which involved investigating allegations about the judiciary, exposure of government secrets, abuse of power, professional negligence and seditious statements.
The task force’s report was tabled before the Cabinet in September last year and made public on Oct 21.