Lawyers rep­re­sent­ing En­er­gy and En­er­gy In­dus­tries Min­is­ter Dr Roodal Mooni­lal have been giv­en a lit­tle over a month to file a de­fence to a defama­tion law­suit brought by a busi­ness­man and two of his com­pa­nies.

Mooni­lal re­ceived the ex­ten­sion as the law­suit brought by James Ker­ron Rose, Tril­lions Sys­tems Lim­it­ed, and Rose Cap­i­tal In­vest­ments Lim­it­ed came up for hear­ing be­fore Jus­tice Frank Seep­er­sad yes­ter­day morn­ing.

Rose and the com­pa­nies’ lawyers, Farai Hove-Ma­sai­sai and Mpule Williams, were ini­tial­ly seek­ing a de­fault judg­ment against Mooni­lal over his pre­vi­ous fail­ure to meet dead­lines for the fil­ing of his de­fence.