MIC and its leaders get injunction against social media critic

MIC president S Vigneswaran and his deputy M Saravanan were both attacked in Facebook postings by the defendant.

KUALA LUMPUR: The High Court here has given the MIC and two senior party officials an interim injunction to stop a man from posting and circulating defamatory videos or statements on his social media platforms, pending the disposal of a suit.

Lawyer Vischaal Yogaratnam, who represented the party, its president S Vigneswaran and deputy president M Saravanan, said judge Ahmad Bache allowed the restraining order after an ex-parte application.

Vischaal said the defendant, identified only as S Dayalan, had on two separate occasions posted videos defaming the plaintiffs.

The first video dated Sept 16 this year contained statements which defamed the MIC and Vigneswaran. The second video dated Nov 25 contained statements which defamed the party and Saravanan, who is also the Human Resources Minister.

Vischaal said the judge had fixed Jan 6 for an inter-parte hearing.

“Dayalan can appoint a lawyer and apply to have the injunction lifted,” he added.

On Dec 10 , the plaintiffs filed a RM10 million suit against Dayalan for posting defamatory videos and statements via his Facebook.

Vischaal said he was now attempting to serve the papers on Dayalan whose correspondence address is still unknown.

“We will apply to the court to go for substitute service if we fail to serve it on him personally,” he said.