Kochi: The Kerala High Court has held that Christian priests and nuns have right to ancestral property and that their vow of poverty does not deprive their rights.
A division bench gave the landmark verdict on June 7 after considering an appeal against a lower court’s ruling that a priest does not have right to ancestral property as he takes a vow of poverty as part of attaining priesthood.
The High Court, however, said, “To hold that one would suffer a ‘civil death’ and be deprived of his property on entering into the Holy Order would be a naked infringement of Article 300-A of the Constitution of India that allows citizens the right to property.”
The appellate court, however, said a Hindu ascetic or a Christian priest can relinquish his right over personal property in favor of a mutt or monastery according the prevailing law.
“But there cannot be any automatic deprivation of property acquired by way of intestate or testamentary succession by the mere fact that one has entered into the religious order and renounced his worldly pleasures,” the High Court added.
There is absolutely no statutory prohibition for a Christian priest or nun in the matter of intestate or testamentary succession of property in his or her personal capacity, the judgment stated.
(Source: The Times of India)