The committal proceedings brought against Suva lawyer Richard Naidu by Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum in the High Court at in Suva, scheduled to begin today, will commence next Wednesday.
The matter was called before High Court judge Justice Jude Nanayakarra.
Mr Naidu was represented conditionally by lawyers Jon Apted, Peter Knight, Subhas Parshotam, Suruj Sharma, Laurel Vaurasi, Filimoni Vosarogo and Mele Rakai, while Devanesh Sharma and Gul Fatimah represented Mr Sayed-Khaiyum.
Mr Apted entered a conditional appearance to point out to the Court that if the hearing were to commence today, this would breach Order 52 of the High Court Rules 1988, which requires at least eight clear days between the date of personal service of the documents and the date for the hearing.
He said Mr Naidu was served on Thursday last week and since then, only seven clear days had passed and so the hearing could not start.
Mr Sharma confirmed that Mr Naidu was not served with eight clear days because he was in the West on the day they intended to serve him the notice of motion.
Justice Nanayakarra ordered that the notice of motion be re-dated and re-served on Mr Naidu before the hearing could commence.
The proceedings were brought against Mr Naidu by Mr Sayed-Khaiyum, who alleges that a social media post by Mr Naidu sought to ridicule a judicial officer and the Fijian judiciary as a whole, bring into disrepute and lower the reputation of the judicial officer and the administration of justice in Fiji, and invite and encourage viewers of the post to cast aspersions against expatriate judicial officers.
The hearing will commence on Wednesday, July 13.
