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The hearing, scheduled for today, has been pushed back to Oct 30.
However, Mr Sri S. Vadivel Kounder, 59, indicated to The Straits Times yesterday that he was having second thoughts on whether to continue his court action.
Mr Kounder, a part-time driver, had engaged the veteran opposition leader to argue his application for a by-election in Jurong GRC after the death of MP Ong Chit Chung in July.
The Government has said there would be no by-election and the work of the late Dr Ong will be shared among the other four MPs in the five-MP constituency.
Mr Jeyaretnam, 82, died of heart failure on Sept 30, and yesterday, Mr Kounder said: 'I've to reconsider now because Mr Jeyaretnam is no longer around. It was because of him that I went to court to ask for a by-election.'
Mr Kounder, a Workers' Party (WP) member from 1971 to 2001, said he was hoping his court action could pave the way for Mr Jeyaretnam to return to Parliament. The late Mr Jeyaretnam was the WP chief until 2001 and a former MP of the now-defunct Anson ward.
Mr Kounder, who has lived in Jurong GRC for 20 years, had hoped that with a by-election, Mr Jeyaretnam would lead a team to contest the poll and get a chance to be an MP again.
He said he received the High Court letter with the new hearing date on Monday. It also said his application may be dismissed if he fails to appear at the hearing.
Mr Kounder said he would make a decision in the next few days, after he meets leaders of the Reform Party (RP), a political party Mr Jeyaretnam formed in June as his comeback vehicle.
The party's chairman, Mr Ng Teck Siong, said it had approached several lawyers, including Mr Jeyaretnam's son Philip, a Senior Counsel. But none agreed to take the case.
Mr Ng said he also contacted lawyer and former WP candidate Chia Ti Lik, who said he was considering the request.
The court adjournment came after Mr Kounder missed a pre-trial court conference last Friday.
The court had informed him of the morning meeting in a letter last Tuesday, but Mr Kounder said he saw it only on Friday evening.
At the meeting, Deputy Public Prosecutor Shawn Ho said the Attorney-General's Chambers had no objections to a postponement and that Attorney- General Walter Woon would argue the case.
The Attorney-General's Chambers had also submitted two affidavits.
One has Mr Siow Peng Han, deputy clerk of the Parliament, saying that since GRCs were introduced in June 1988, there have been five occasions when the seat of an MP in a GRC was vacated.
Only once was a by-election called, to inject new blood into the Marine Parade GRC in 1992.
The other affidavit has Mr Lee Seng Lup, the Elections Department head, saying that of the 39 names of Jurong GRC residents submitted by Mr Kounder, 13 are not shown in the electoral register as residents of the GRC.
But there may be several reasons for this, he added. These people may be, at the cut-off date of Jan 1, 2006, non-citizens, below age 21 or not living in the GRC.
Another possible reason is that their names had been removed from the register because they failed to vote in a previous parliamentary or presidential election.
