M.Y.BABY Vs. M.S.PAULOSE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This appeal was preferred by defendants 7 to 9 in O.S.No.15/2016 on the file of the Sub Court, Muvattupuzha. The dispute manifests a factional dispute among parishioners of the Syrian Malankara Church. The suit was filed in the year 2016 much before the decision of the Apex Court in Varghese v. St.Peter's & Paul's Syrian Orthodox Church [2017 (3) KLT 261 (SC)]. The decision of the Apex Court in Varghese case (supra) would bind all disputes relating to Malankara Church. The Apex Court's decision in Varghese case (supra) was in a representative suit and there was nothing left for further litigation on the matter but to ensure that binding judgment of the Apex Court in Varghese case (supra) is followed in all future litigations. The Apex Court declared that the administration of Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church shall be in accordance with the provisions of the 1934 Constitution.

(2.) The present suit was filed for declaration and injunction of St.Johns Besphage Orthodox Syrian Church, Pulinthanam in Muvattupuzha. They seek a declaration that the aforesaid church has to be administrated in accordance with the provisions of the 1934 Constitution of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. They also sought an injunction as against causing obstruction to the Vicars appointed under the 1934 Constitution.

(3.) The contesting defendants resisted the suit contending that there was no occasion for the first defendant church being administrated under the 1934 Constitution. The 1934 Constitution was never adopted for the administration of the Church.