HC Division Bench recuses from hearing church cases

Jacobite faction seeks recusal of Justice Devan Ramachandran

A Division Bench of the Kerala High Court on Tuesday recused itself from hearing the petitions filed by the Orthodox faction of the Malankara Church seeking police protection for implementing a Supreme Court judgment in the matter of temporal and spiritual administration of the St. Mary’s church at Piravom in Ernakulam district.

The Bench of Justice P.R.Ramachandra Menon and Justice Devan Ramachandran passed the order when a petition filed by Shiju P. Kunjumon and four other members of the Jacobite faction from Kattachira seeking recusal of Justice Devan Ramachandran from taking up the petition came up for hearing.

The petitioners alleged that while practising as senior High Court lawyer, Justice Devan Ramachadran had appeared for the Jacobite faction in another Church case.

The court, however, observed that it was a case of forum shopping at the worst. The court noted that when the petition filed by the Orthodox faction came up for hearing for the fist time, the court by way of abundant caution had specifically asked whether any of the parties in the case had any objection to the case being heard by the Bench.

They unequivocally took the stand that there was no impediment in hearing the case by the Bench. In fact, the Bench had been hearing the petition for the last six months. The Bench pointed out that the order issued issued by it on November 28, which the petitioners believed was against them, coupled with the police action seemed to have persuaded the petitioner to seek the recusal of one of the judges.

In fact, the petitioners sought the judge’s recusal on the ground of a case which was completely unrelatable to the case being heard by the Bench.

The court pointed out that the Advocate General and counsel for the Jacobite and the Orthodox factions had reposed complete faith in the judge and requested it not to recuse itself from hearing the case. Even though the Bench had the complete trust of the counsel, it was not inclined to hear the case further in view of the accusation raised by the petitioners. Therefore, the judges said that they were recusing themselves from hearing the cases.

The court ordered that the cases be placed before the Chief Justice for referring it to another Bench.