Channel NewsAsia
SINGAPORE, June 7, 2004: Thirteen Hindu deities at an unregistered Hindu temple will have to find a new home after the High Court threw out its caretaker’s claim that the land on which it is situated belongs to him. Sri Marathadi Muneeswarar Temple, which has devotees here and from Malaysia, has stood on the state-owned site for 48 years. The 500-sq-m piece of land which lies off Upper Changi Road North has been earmarked for industrial development. In January, the Jurong Town Corporation (JTC) started court proceedings for a demolition order against the temple under the State Lands Encroachment Act. In turn, temple founder Veerappan Ariappthire, 79, sued the Attorney-General – the representative of the State – and the JTC. Last Monday, Mr. Veerappan’s lawyer, Mr. Subhas Anandan, asked the court to prevent the AG and the JTC from exercising rights of ownership on the property. He is filing an appeal against the judgment.
Mr. Veerappan, 79, has contended that by “words and conduct” between 1990 and last year, the JTC had promised to sell the land. He alleged that in a meeting with the JTC in 1990, temple devotees had told JTC officer Leong Siew Khiong that they wanted to buy the land – an offer that they repeated in 1999. Mr. Veerappan claimed the JTC’s answer was that they would look into the matter. Mr. Leong, however, has said he had “no recollection” of the alleged meeting in 1990. He said the issue of a land sale was first raised in 1999 and he had told the temple committee that the site could not be sold as it was meant for industrial use by the state. In 2000, the JTC erected a fence on the land. Mr. Veerappan took it as an indication that “JTC would eventually sell the land to the temple.” But the JTC denied making any such representations. A JTC spokesman said that temple devotees knew as early as 1999 that the JTC planned to recover the land.
The fence was erected to the stop the temple “from expanding further,” said the JTC, “not an indication of allowing the temple to stay.” The JTC said it has been acting as an agent of the government in clearing the land of squatters over the 1980s and 1990s. “The temple was left to the last because some of the squatters worshipped at the temple,” said the spokesman. The tussle has taken its toll on Mr Veerappan, who sank a total of US$15,000 from his CPF savings into the temple. He said in Malay: “I haven’t been sleeping. If they take the temple away, I think I’ll die of heartache. Everything will be gone … my entire life effort.”