Suit Filed in Sikh Temple Dispute : Legal: Plaintiffs ask for new elections for temple directors and seek to have the building open for worship by dissident groups.

A long-running dispute that once led to violence between two groups at a Sikh temple was back in court Monday.

More than 100 members of the Sikh Gurdwara temple in the 7600 block of Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood filed suit against the temple’s directors, asking the Los Angeles Superior Court to order them not to close the temple to dissident groups and to hold elections.

The lawsuit is similar to one filed nearly a year ago by a group of Sikhs against many of the same directors.

The lawsuit filed Monday alleges that Gursharan S. Nat and 50 unnamed defendants disrupted religious proceedings at the temple on Oct. 3, 1993 by spraying a tear gas-like substance on congregation members.

When the members tried to flee, the lawsuit alleges, Nat and the other 50 defendants beat them with metal bars and microphone stands. The suit contends the beatings were authorized by the temple’s directors, who were also named as defendants.

The plaintiff group also alleges that they were deprived of their right to worship because the directors closed the temple three days later, and asked for unspecified damages and a court order requiring the directors not to close the temple and to allow elections to be held for their positions.

The directors could not be reached for comment Monday night.

Monday’s lawsuit is the latest development in a series of legal battles between at least two Sikh factions over the North Hollywood temple.

The temple’s directors filed their own lawsuit last year, alleging that the dissidents had beaten several of them during the fracas Oct. 3, which prompted them to close the temple until some of the dissidents took over the building. The directors won temporary restraining orders against the dissidents, who subsequently sued the directors.