Human rights lawyer Aman Ravindra-Singh has been given until January 18 to find a lawyer to fight the committal proceedings brought against him by Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama and Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.
The matter was called before Justice Lyone Seneviratne in the Civil High Court of Fiji in Suva yesterday.
The proceedings were brought against him for failing to pay $120,000 for damages to the reputations of Mr Bainimarama and Mr Sayed-Khaiyum in social media posts by Mr Ravindra-Singh in 2018.
An application was made alleging contempt of court and the matter at hand was whether or not Mr Ravindra-Singh was indeed in contempt of court.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs, Devanesh Sharma and Gul Fatima, submitted that they had filed a supplementary affidavit and had served it to Mr Ravindra-Singh, who confirmed receiving the documents.
He sought 28 days to respond to the plaintiffs affidavit and Justice Senevirante gave the plaintiffs’ lawyers 14 days to respond.
Mr Sharma asked the court if the matter could be called in December but Mr Ravindra-Singh told the court he needed time to seek legal counsel to represent him in the matter and that he was facing difficulty in doing so.
The matter will be called again on January 18 next year.
