University authorities said the land belonged to the institution and the government had no right to take it away and gift it to anyone, including the church.
"We came to know about the government decision through media reports. We will certainly raise an objection if it is true that the government has decided to gift the prime land that belongs to the university,” said acting vice-chancellor N Veeramanikandan.
He said the prime land cannot be gifted to anyone, including the church that was built as part of the army barrack in the pre-independence era.
The documents show that the said land was vested to the erstwhile Travancore university by the Travancore government in 1944, vide a notification.
"The government may take back the property or any partition of the property at any time or apply or order the application of such property for any purpose which in the opinion of the government is a public purpose whether or not it is one the purpose for which the university is constituted," said the notification dated November 20 and undersigned by then chief secretary G Parameswaran Pillai.
According to documents, the state government has not divested even an inch of the land under the university till date though it used its parts for several public purposes, including the MLA hostel and the assembly complex.
The property of the university was categorized as government property in survey records as the Travancore University was a government department till it became autonomous and took the name of University of Kerala in 1957.
The Kerala University Act also states that "the university shall have perpetual succession and a common seal, and may be sued by the said name.
The court of the principal sub-judge, Thiruvananthapuram, had in an order on August 24, 2007 not only rejected the Christ Church's claim over 33 cents of land in between the university stadium and the church but also said the documents produced by the church before the court were contradictory and even the building of Christ church and surrounding land belonged to the government.
University estate officer Raman Pillai said the 64.66 cents was given to the Travancore university by the then Maharaja when the Travancore State Force shifted its base from the said land to Pangode in 1936.
He said the CSI Christ Church was formerly known as CMS church and it was built by the army for the worship of European military officers.
Even the Christ Church in its petition to the principal sub-court had admitted that the government was carrying out the maintenance of the church till 1-4-1941.
This disproves the church's claim that the land was in its possession for the past 150 years.