Priests in India are pinning their hopes on the Vatican after the High Court of Kerala dismissed a case against Cardinal George Alencherry over a land deal that has rocked the church for more than a year. Chief Justice Antony Dominic dismissed the case on May 22 on grounds that the court made jurisdictional errors in allowing the investigation against the cardinal and petitioners had rushed to the court before waiting for a police investigation.

The court’s move has “not given us any justice. The moral and ethical violations and the related frustrations continue,” said Father Kuriakose Mundadan, secretary of the presbyteral council, a canonical body of priests in the cardinal’s Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese.

The court dismissed the case, filed by lay Catholic Shine Varghese, on grounds of legal infirmity because the petitioner approached the court complaining of police inaction within hours of filing a police complaint. “The court has not quashed the police complaint. It has not said there is no case against the cardinal, nor that the police should not investigate. However, we continue with the problem without a solution,” Father Mundadan said.