To win trust of Jacobites, govt files petition in High Court.

Source – newindianexpress.com

KOCHI: In an attempt to pacify the Jacobite faction in the Church dispute with Orthodox, the state government on Thursday filed a petition before the Kerala High Court seeking to review its judgment directing the Ernakulam district collector to take over Kothamangalam Cheriyapalli, its precincts and movable properties after removing all persons squatting inside its premises.

In his petition, the Ernakulam district collector said the order is against the Supreme Court judgment in the Church case. Its direction was that the parishioners cannot be removed from the church and only the officially designated vicar can conduct the religious ceremony within the church. The SC had held the church and cemetery could not be confiscated by anybody. It has to remain with parishioners as per the customary rights and nobody can be deprived of the right to use the same.

Govt states it has to identify ‘faithful’

The government stated that it has to identify the persons who continue to have faith in Malankara Church. Without doing it, all the parishioners cannot be removed from the church and cemetery.
Two members of the Jacobite faction also filed review petitions. The court will consider the case on Monday.

Kerala High Court on Thursday dispensed with the personal appearance of the Ernakulam district collector before it in a contempt case against him for not complying with the order to take over the Kothamangalam church. When the case came up, Justice P B Suresh Kumar asked the Orthodox faction not to be in a hurry and be pragmatic regarding the implementation of the order.

‘Duty of the state govt’
A division bench of the Kerala High Court said it was the duty of the state government to implement the Supreme Court verdict in the Piravom church case without any obstruction from others. The bench also reserved its order on the petition seeking a directive to take over the chapels under the Piravom church.State attorney K V Sohan submitted that a directive to take over the church and give it to a particular faction could not be issued by the High Court in the wake of the Supreme Court order in the K S Varghese case.