Court declines to hear church matter due to conflict of interest

Piravom, Dec. 11, 2018: The Kerala High Court on December 11 refused to hear a petition regarding the management of a church currently in the middle of a heated dispute between the two factions of Christians.

A division bench of the court comprising of Justice PR Ramachandra Menon and Justice Devan Ramachandran was dealing with a petition over the management of the embattled Piravam Church claimed by the Jacobite and the Orthodox faction of the Malankara Syrian Church.

The petition by one Shiju P Kunjumon invoked landmark judgments from around the world to establish that “judges, like Caesar’s wife, must be above suspicion.” The 23-year-old layman also pointed out that Justice Devan Ramachandran had earlier appeared as a lawyer in the dispute regarding the administration of churches under the Malankara Church.

Having appeared as a lawyer in the matter of Malankara Church administration before, the petition appealed to legal precedent and principles of justice in stating that Justice Ramachandran must recuse himself from hearing the case.

Upon receiving this petition, both judges decided not to hear the case, and have placed the matter before the Chief Justice of Kerala, who will post the case to the appropriate divisional bench.

In a controversial landmark judgment on July 3, the Supreme Court of India had ruled on a century-old dispute between the two factions. The top appellate court in the court had ruled that 1,100 parishes and their churches under the Malankara Church should be controlled by the Orthodox faction, as per the 1934 Malankara Church guidelines. However, 80 percent of the families under the Piravom Church are Jacobites and 20 percent Orthodox.

Many churches, including the Piravam one, could not carry out the court order as the Jacobites blocked police from entering their premises.

On December 10, the Piravom Church witnessed high drama after police attempted to accompany Orthodox clergymen into the church, and Jacobite faction members camped inside the church threatened to commit suicide if they proceeded, forcing the police to cancel their operation.

(Source: thenewsminute.com)