By Matters India Reporter
CHENNAI, October 16, 2026: The Madras High Court has ruled that property acquired by members of Catholic religious orders after taking religious vows may belong to their religious congregation rather than their legal heirs, depending on the order’s rules and the circumstances under which the assets were obtained.
A division bench comprising Justices N. Anand Venkatesh and K. K. Ramakrishnan delivered the ruling while allowing appeals filed by the ABVM Society of the Catholic Apostolate, also known as the Pallottines.
The court overturned a lower court order that had granted succession rights over fixed deposits worth 5.6 million rupees ($67,000) to relatives of the late Father Devakumar Arulanantham, according to a report by Bar and Bench.
The priest’s brothers and niece had claimed the deposits after obtaining a succession certificate.
However, the High Court held that ownership could not be determined merely because the accounts were in the priest’s name.
Instead, it said his religious obligations and the institutional context in which the assets were acquired were central to deciding ownership.
The judges distinguished assets acquired after joining a religious order from property owned beforehand or inherited from family members, noting that inherited property does not automatically become the property of a religious society.
The court relied in part on a 1988 handwritten declaration by Arulanantham stating that his personal belongings should pass to the society while inherited family property would remain subject to family rights.
The bench ordered the relatives to return the funds to the society within one month or face interest charges of 9% annually.