Raja Ahmad Mohzanuddin Shah J:

(Enclosure 37)

Preliminary

[1] By way of encl 37, the plaintiff is seeking from this court to have a protective order imposed over the documents they intend to produce pending the determination of this action, allegedly so as to protect the confidentiality of those documents as stated in 'Schedule A'.

[2] In order to better understand the nature of this application, the original version of encl 37 is reproduced below:

1) That the information and contents of the documents as listed and/or described in Schedule "A" to this Notice of Application ("Protected Information") be subject to a Protective Order or sealing order;

2) That all or part of the information and content in the Protected Information, which is confidential, disclosed and produced or caused to be disclosed and produced in these legal proceedings, and in any subsequent appeals, be always subjected to the following conditions:

(a) That the Protected Information and/or document containing the Protected Information will only be used for purposes of these proceedings and any use of the Protected Information for other purposes are prohibited;

(b) The Protected Information and/or any document which contains the Protected Information shall not, directly or indirectly, be disclosed, detailed, described, characterised, reproduced or communicated, either by itself or together with any other information, in any manner or form whatsoever to any person except:

(i) The Judge hearing this action, or any other Judge that subsequently exercises its original and/or appellate functions related to this action;

(ii) court staff and officers directly assisting the Judge in this action as required;

(iii) Solicitors and counsel acting for the parties in this action including the supporting officer or staff directly assisting in this action;

(iv) Any person with the consent of the Plaintiffs or allowed by this Honourable court; (hereinafter referred to either individually and/or collectively as "Recipient of Protected Information")

(c) The Recipient of Protected Information and/or documents that contain the Protected Information shall not in any manner or form discuss, disclose, detail, describe, characterise, reproduce, relay or communicate the Protected Information or any part of it to any person who is not the Recipient of the Protected Information or to any person not entitled to receive or be disclosed the Protected Information under the terms of this Order;

(d) Where any document which contains information and contents of the Protected Information is required, or necessary, to be filed in court, the parties shall, pursuant to O 63A r 7(4) of the Rules of 2012, file the said document by way of physical service and separated from the other documents in the Judge's or Judges' chambers;

(e) In accordance with paragraph (d) above, each document containing information and contents of the Protected Information which has been filed or served on the court shall be placed and remain in custody of the court until further order;

(f) Subject to paragraph (b) above, each document that contains information and contents of the Protected Information which has been filed and served on the court shall not be disclosed to, or accessible by, or made available for public inspection by any person who is not the Recipient of Protected Information;

(g) For avoidance of doubt, all documents containing information and contents of the Protected Information that have been filed prior to this Order, whether through electronic filing, manual filing or other applicable methods, such documents shall be removed from the part of the file accessible to the public or third parties, and such documents must be treated in accordance with conditions in paragraphs (c), (d), (e) and (f) above;

(h) During the course of this action or any subsequent appeals, copies of the documents containing information and contents of the Protected Information which has been filed and/or served pursuant to paragraph (d) an