An order from India’s top court has rekindled hope for settling a property dispute between two warring factions of the Oriental Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch, which is based in southern Kerala state. The Supreme Court, in its Dec. 21 order, told the Kerala state government to assess the facts while maintaining the “status quo with regard to management and administration of the churches, as it exists today.” The government in Kerala is finding it challenging to implement a 2017 Supreme Court order. The court awarded disputed churches to the Orthodox faction, but the state failed to implement it because of stiff opposition from the Jacobite camp, a breakaway faction of the Damascus-based Church. In early December, the top court told the warring Orthodox and Jacobite factions to share all public amenities at disputed church properties until a solution to their row could be found. The latest hearing was held on Dec. 17, but the top court released the order on Dec. 21.
The division bench of Justice Surya Kant and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan told the state government to furnish vital statistics “such as total number of faithful belonging to Orthodox and Jacobite denominations, churches under the control of each side, list of churches under dispute, composition of parishioners of these churches from village panchayat level.” The order also gave liberty to both parties to submit their parish registers before the court. “The state government of Kerala, however, is given the liberty to intervene as and when required in accordance with law in case of any dispute arising between them,” it further said. The top court was hearing a bunch of petitions challenging a Kerala High Court order that directed the state government to take possession of six churches in Ernakulam and Palakkad districts under the control of the Jacobite faction in compliance with its 2017 order.
In its Dec. 3 order, the top court held the Jacobite side guilty of contempt and directed it to hand over “only” the admini-stration of the six churches.