Federal Court adjourns hearing again

Firm’s leave to appeal postponed to Nov 7

PETALING JAYA: The Federal Court has adjourned the hearing of Jaks Island Circle Sdn Bhd’s (JIC) leave to appeal until Nov 7 in a suit against Star Media Group Bhd (Star) after its counsel Datuk Seri Gopal Sri Ram sought an adjournment because he had a sudden vertigo attack.

The interim injunction to restrain the banks from releasing bank guarantees amounting to RM50mil to Star remains in effect, said Star Media Group in a statement to Bursa Malaysia yesterday.

JIC is a subsidiary of Jaks Resources Bhd.

JIC’s previous counsel was Datuk Ambiga Sreenevasan and its new counsels are Sri Ram and Manoharan Malayalam. The counsels for Star are Tharminder Singh and Wong Guo Bin.

The Federal Court, on Aug 1, granted JIC’s application for an interim injunction to restrain two financial institutions from releasing bank guarantees of RM50mil to Star Media Group, pending the hearing and disposal of JIC’s motions for leave to appeal to the Federal Court, which was heard yesterday.

JIC had filed the application for leave to appeal to the Federal Court against the Court of Appeal’s July 27 decision, during which JIC failed in its attempt to obtain an Erinford injunction to restrain the financial institutions from releasing the money. The company had previously also failed to get an injunction at the High Court on July 23.

An Erinford injunction is an injunction applied for in the same terms pending appeal to preserve the status quo.

The bank guarantees were called upon by Star after JIC failed to complete and deliver a 15storey office block known as Tower A in Section 13, Petaling Jaya, in accordance with the deadline.

The media group had on Aug 19, 2011, entered into a sale and purchase agreement (SPA) with JIC, a 51% subsidiary of Jaks Resources Bhd, for the disposal of a piece of land in Section 13 for RM135mil.

Under the SPA, the bank guarantees were obtained by JIC in August 2011 as security for guaranteeing the completion and delivery of the vacant possession of Tower A on the piece of development.

When JIC failed to complete and deliver the building in accordance with the deadline, Star had called on the RM50mil bank guarantees.

JIC, however, applied for injunction orders from the High Court to stop the two financial institutions from releasing the bank guarantees to Star.