The Ipoh High Court today dismissed an injunction application by 817 Pakatan Rakyat-appointed village heads to stop the BN state government from replacing them with BN appointees.

Judicial Commissioner Ridwan Ibrahim also rejected the Pakatan village heads' application to stop the BN state government from using community halls exclusively for BN members.

The 817 village heads were elected by the Pakatan government and had their two-year contract terminated by the BN state government when the Pakatan was overthrown in February.

They had filed a suit challenging their dismissal and sought a court order to quash their dismissal.

They had also wanted the two injunctions to restrain the BN government from appointing new village heads to replace them and to prevent only BN members from using the community halls.

While these two injunction applications were rejected this morning, justice Ridwan however allowed the dismissed village heads to seek leave for judicial review on their other applications.

The leave application will be heard on Sept 2.

Claiming for damages too

If the leave is allowed, the court will then look into the sacked village heads' applications to quash their dismissal and for them to be reinstated until their term ends on July 31 next year.

The 817 village heads were represented by lawyers Chan Kok Keong, Leong Cheok Keng and Mohd Yunus Ali.

Federal counsel Noor Hisham Ismail from the Attorney-General's Chambers appeared for the state.

Some 400 of the affected village heads were present for the hearing this morning. However not all of them managed to enter the small courtroom.

After the case, their lawyer Leong was hopeful of getting their village heads reappointed.

"As we cannot get the injunction orders, we will go for a declaration order instead and seek their reappointments and claim for damages when the court sits on Sept 2," he said.

The suit was filed on May 26.