In a closed-door hearing June 26, Mr Jeyaretnam wanted the court to set aside their demands on the grounds that they were ""defective''.

But Deputy Registrar Ng Peng Hong dismissed Mr Jeyaretnam's application with costs.

He also allowed the eight claimants to proceed with their bankruptcy action against Mr Jeyaretnam.

The eight are Mr Nirumalan Pillay, a lawyer; Mr Pakir Maideen, a retired school principal; Mr V. Krishnasamy; Mr V. R. P. Manickam; Mr A. R. Mashuthoo; Mr Naseer Ghani; Mrs Indra Krishnan and Mr Samy Veerasamy.

They and two other lawyers were on the committee which organised the first Tamil Language Week in 1995 and were defamed in The Hammer, a WP publication.

The article in the August 1995 issue had accused the Tamil Language Week organisers of being incompetent in promoting the Tamil language and were "nakedly prostituting themselves'' to seek political gain or office.

When the High Court gave its judgment for the suit in 1998, it ordered Mr Jeyaretnam, who is The Hammer's editor, writer A. Balakrishnan and their party to pay total damages of $265,000.

Last month, Mr Jeyaretnam paid up a debt he owed to two other lawyers -- R. Kalamohan and R. Ravindran -- so that a bankruptcy order against him was set aside.

The bankruptcy order was issued after he failed to pay $12,092 in defamation damages owed to the lawyers.