The Jacobite and Malankara Churches have been fighting for possession of church properties since they split after agreeing a common constitution in 1934.
The Kerala High Court set aside a single judge’s order for district collectors to confiscate six disputed churches of the Jacobite Syrian Orthodox Church.
It ruled that civil administration cannot be directed to take over places of worship in disputes between religious factions.
The confiscation order originated in a contempt petition filed by the Malankara Orthodox Church which claims control of the churches in Ernakulam and Palakkad districts.
The Jacobite Church appealed against the order in the Indian Supreme Court, which set aside the directive and redirected the case to the Kerala High Court for fresh consideration.
On 24 March, the division bench comprising Justice Anil K Narendran and Justice Muralee Krishna S. said the order was beyond its contempt jurisdiction and that no court has the power to order the physical confiscation of religious institutions in disputes between denominational factions.
However, the court can order police protection for worship and ensure there are no law and order issues.
The Jacobite Church’s Catholicos Baselios Joseph said that while he was eager for a peaceful resolution, he was not in favour of surrendering any church.
“We want a peaceful resolution to the issue, one that ensures a peaceful coexistence as sister churches,” he said.
However, the Malankara Church said it would continue with its legal efforts. The Supreme Court previously affirmed its rights to control the churches under the churches’ 1934 constitution.
The Jacobite and Malankara Churches have been fighting for possession of churches for decades. In 1934, they agreed a common constitution and elected the Catholicos of the East as their common head, but later split again and have been in conflict since.
The Churches have disputed issues of ecclesiastical authority and church governance for decades in a plethora of court cases.
In 2017, the Supreme Court granted administrative control of various churches in Kerala to the Malankara Church in the case of K.S. Varghese vs St Peter’s and Paul’s Syrian Orthodox Church and Others.
But the Jacobites did not adhere to the ruling, prompting the rival faction filed a contempt of court case in the Kerala High Court.
The Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, tracing its foundation to St Thomas in 52 AD, divided in 1912 in a dispute over leadership.
What became the Jacobite Church adhered to the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch, while the Malankara Church – also known as the Indian Orthodox Church – asserted its autocephaly, with its own primate as Catholicos of the East and Malankara Metropolitan.