HOURS after a court rejected an injunction application by a set of devotees, another court granted an interim order to stop One City Development from taking over the land that the Sri Maha Mariamman temple in Seafield sits on.

The second hearing took place before Shah Alam High Court judge Wong Kian Kheong, who allowed the interim injunction to restrain the developer from taking any steps as regards the possession of the temple.

The interim injunction is in place until the disposal of the application for injunction on January 11, 2019.

The injunction application was filed by M. Ramachandran and 49 others against seven defendants, including One City, the Selangor government and K. Chellappa, the former temple committee president.

According to the plaintiffs’ lawyer A. Vasanthi, the application this morning was part of a suit filed on November 23 based on allegations of fraud and conspiracy between Chellappa and One City in obtaining a consent judgment in 2014 which allowed the developer to take over the land.

She said the developer had pledged not to take any steps as regards the temple until disposal of the application for injunction is settled.

The new development brings added confusion to the status of the temple, with the government also saying it was looking at an amicable solution.

Earlier today, another Shah Alam court, presided by justice M. Gunalam rejected an application by three devotees of the temple to restrain One City from taking over the land.

 This bid was filed by S. Thangaraju, M. Mohanakhrishnan and S. Nagarajah.

One City’s lawyer, Claudia Cheah Pek Yee, told reporters this morning that the court rejected the application as the trio had no locus standi on the matter, and that the developer is the legal owner of the land.

That earlier ruling meant that the consent judgment for the relocation of the temple remains.

 The original consent judgment was part of a court solution in 2014 involving One City, the Selangor government and two claimants to the temple management – Chellappa and M. Nagaraju.

Both Chellappa and Nagaraju, who were involved in a separate legal battle over control of the temple management, agreed to hand back the land that the temple sits on to One City after the developer consented to donate RM1.5 million for the construction of a new temple on one of two plots of land given by the company.

Chellappa has since been named as the temple manager, but Nagaraju refuses to abide by the consent judgment to relocate.

After the temple gave up the rights to one of the two plots of land, One City gave it another RM1 million in compensation.

It is the consent judgment that the second case is contesting, said lawyer Vasanthi.

The tussle over the temple became a flashpoint when armed men stormed the house of worship and its devotees in the early hours of November 26, just days before the expiry of the developer’s eviction notice.

The following day, some unidentified men ransacked the developer’s office, in what appears to be a retaliatory action.

The police have made about 30 arrests, including a legal officer from the developer who is accused of paying the thugs to attack the temple.

The government has said the incident was not racial but a criminal act that will be punished. – November 29, 2018.