In a landmark ruling, the Kerala High Court has held that Christian priests and nuns have right to ancestral property and that their vow of poverty does not deprive their rights.
The ruling was given by a division bench after considering an appeal (AS No. 460/2000) challenging a lower court’s ruling that a priest does not have right to ancestral property as he takes a vow of poverty as part of attaining priesthood.
In the judgment, the court said, “To hold that one would suffer a ‘civil death’ and be deprived of his property on entering into the Holy Order would be a naked infringement of Article 300-A of the Constitution of India (right to property). Of course it is the volition of a Hindu ascetic or a Christian priest to relinquish his right over his personal property in favour of a Mutt or Monastery in a manner known to law.
But there cannot be any automatic deprivation of property acquired by way of intestate or testamentary succession by the mere fact that one has entered into the religious order and renounced his worldly pleasures.”
There is absolutely no statutory prohibition for a Christian priest or nun in the matter of intestate or testamentary succession of property in his or her personal capacity, the judgment delivered on June 7 stated.
