Coroner Rofiah Mohamad said there were no “substantive, genuine and reasonable grounds” to make them “interested parties”.

“This inquest is not about pin-pointing criminal liability but to assist the court into the cause of the deceased’s death,” she said.

Rofiah, however, allowed the Bar Council’s application to be made an interested party and contribute to the proceedings.

Lawyer Roger Chan Weng Keng, who represented the council, said Section 42 of the Legal Profession Act 1976 allowed the lawyers’ group to assist the public in all matters relating to the law.

Counsel M Visvanathan and Siti Kasim, who appeared for the task force and the devotees respectively, said they would file a revision in the High Court on today’s ruling.

“We are also disappointed that the conducting officer Hamdan Hamzah vehemently objected to our participation in the inquest,” Visvanathan told FMT later.

Apart from the Bar Council, Suhakam, Adib’s family, the housing and local government ministry and the Fire Services Department have been given the green light to assist in the inquest.

The inquest will be held from Feb 11 to 28, March 1 to 5, March 19 to 29 and April 1 to 12. Thirty witnesses are expected to testify.

Adib, 24, was severely injured during the violence at the Sri Maha Mariamman temple in USJ 25. He had been part of the response team sent from the Subang Jaya fire and rescue station early on Nov 27.

He died at the National Heart Institute three weeks later on Dec 17.