The High Court here today adjourned to Oct 28 the Roman Catholic church's application to set aside the court's order allowing eight parties to intervene in the matter relating the use of the word "Allah" in its weekly publications.

Justice Lau Bee Lan set the date in chambers after she was informed that the Kuala Lumpur Roman Catholic Church's counsel S Selvarajah was unwell.

herald the catholic weekly online 241207 On Aug 3, the court allowed eight parties, including the Islamic religious councils, to be intervenors in the new application by Archbishop Murphy Pakiam for a judicial review over the usage of the word "Allah" in church publications.

In her ruling, Justice Lau held that the eight parties - the Islamic religious councils of Perak, Terengganu, Penang, Selangor, Kedah, Johor and Malacca, and the Malaysian Chinese Muslim Association - had legal interest in the issue.

endon funeral 201005 murphy pakiam On Feb 16, Pakiam ( right ), as the publisher of The Herald , filed a new application for a judicial review after a similar application in 2008 was deemed academic following the expiry of The Herald's publication permit for Jan 1 to Dec 31, 2008.

In the application, naming the Home Ministry and the government as respondents, he is seeking, among other things, a declaration that the decision by the respondents on Jan 7, 2009, prohibiting him from using the word "Allah" in the the Catholic weekly was illegal and that the word "Allah" was not exclusive to the religion of Islam.

- Bernama