The top court in India’s southern Kerala state has refused to set aside its earlier order directing government officials to take possession of six churches in a dispute between two factions of the Oriental Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch. The church properties are being claimed by both the warring Jacobite and Orthodox factions of the Damascus-based church. The factions have been fighting over sharing churches and other assets in Kerala since they split in 1911. A division bench of Kerala High Court on Oct. 17 dismissed appeals from the Jacobite faction, which currently retains the six churches, and asked district collectors of Ernakulam and Palakkad in Kerala to take their possession as per an order of the Supreme Court. India’s top court declared the Kerala-based Orthodox faction the legal heir to all temporal properties of the Oriental church in India in 2017. But the Jacobite faction refused to comply, saying they were in the majority and, hence, the churches and other properties belonged to them. The high court’s order on Aug. 30 directed the district collectors to take possession and file a compliance report on Sept. 30. However, the collectors – the top government officials in districts – could not implement the court order because of opposition from the Jacobite faction, and the Orthodox faction filed a contempt case against the state government. The Jacobite faction sought quashing of the Aug. 30 order, but Justices Anil K Narendran and P G Ajithkumar dismissed its appeals. Advocate Biju Oommen, secretary of the Orthodox Church Association, said the Kerala High Court’s order asking the government to take possession “is the right direction.” Oommen is confident that the court will eventually help transfer the churches to the Orthodox faction, as they are the legal owners, as per the Supreme Court’s 2017 order. “We are now hopeful that we will get back our churches,” he told on Oct. 18. However, the rival faction is unlikely to give up easily.