Hopes for an interim court order suspending all Hindu temple demolitions were quashed when the Kuala Lumpur Criminal High Court declined to rule on the matter until the preliminary question of jurisdiction had been answered.

Justice Lim Yee Lan adjourned the proceedings until the parties had submitted in writing on whether the case belonged to the criminal or the civil courts.

Lim told a packed gallery this morning that the prayers contained in the suit - filed by lawyer P Uthayakumar on behalf of the Hindu Rights Action Force and some two million Hindus in the country - seem civil, rather than criminal, in nature.

In the suit, the court has been asked to declare as criminal or invalid the various acts and notices of demolition of Hindu temples by local authorities throughout the country.

In seeking the injunction, Uthyakumar's counsel M Manoharan ( photo ) had said contempt proceedings had been filed against Selangor menteri besar Dr Mohd Khir Toyo and five other parties following the demolition of temples in Semenyih and Ampang .

An interim injunction by Lim would rule out the need to file contempt proceedings against the authorities for any temple demolition conducted before this case's disposal, added Manoharan.

"They are just waiting to break another ten more temples," Manoharan said further, pointing to the area where deputy public prosecutor Yaacob Mohd Sam - who is lead counsel for the respondents - was seated.

There were murmurs of approval from the gallery, wherein about 40 Indians from various temple communities in Selangor and Negeri Sembilan were seated to watch the hearing.

Lim refused, however, to entertain the application, saying she could not do so until the question of whether she had the authority to deliberate on that matter was settled.

She did not set a deadline by which time the submissions were to be handed in, but said effort would be made to set one at the earliest time possible.

Appeal to be filed

In his suit filed on Dec 18 last year, Uthyakumar had sought the court's declaration that the demolition of temples was against Article 11 of the Federal Constitution guaranteeing freedom of religion.

He also sought the court to declare that such demolitions constitute a criminal offence under Section 295 (defiling a place of worship), Section 296 (disturbing a religious assembly), Section 298A (causing racial disharmony) and Section 441 (criminal trespass) of the Penal Code.

Uthayakumar had named all menteris besar and chief ministers, except for Kelantan and Penang, as the first respondent while all mayors and local council presidents were named as the second respondent.

All land and mines department directors as well as all district officers were named as the third respondent followed by Housing and Local Government Ministry chief secretary Ahmad Fuad Ismail as the fourth respondent.

As for the fifth to the 10th respondent, he named Federal Territories Minister Zulhasnan Rafique, the inspector-general of police, the Sentul district police chief, the attorney-general, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz and chief secretary to the government Sidek Hassan.

Contacted later, Manoharan said an appeal would be filed with a 'certificate of urgency' at the Court of Appeal for an interim injunction to stop further demolition orders.