Bishop Franco Mulakkal of India’s Jalandhar Diocese, who is facing trial on charges of raping a Catholic nun, has appealed to the country’s top court to clear him, pleading innocence after two lower courts rejected a similar petition.

The Supreme Court of India registered Bishop Mulakkal’s discharge plea on July 24 and agreed to hear him, according to court records published on its website. However, the court has not given a date to hear the case.

Lawyers connected with the case told UCA News that the 56-year-old bishop moved the top court after the High Court in Kerala State dismissed his dis-charge plea on July 7.

His appeal in the High Court came after a district court in Kottayam in Kerala dismissed a similar plea on March 16.

Bishop Mulakkal’s applica-tion pleaded innocence. It said a 43-year-old nun, former superior general of the Missionaries of Jesus, a diocesan congregation under his patronage, complained against him with malafide inten-tion following his differences with her.

The nun, based in Kerala, filed a police complaint in June 2018 accusing the bishop of raping her 13 times from 2014-16. The crimes happened when the Bishop, based in northern India, visited her convent in the southern state.

The Supreme Court did not give the Bishop any immediate relief as both the prosecution and the petitioner nun had moved separate caveats before the Supre-me Court pleaded not to decide on the case without hearing them.