Close on the heels of turning down the government’s call to work out a consensus with the Jacobite Syrian Christian Church on the ownership of churches, the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church has hardened its criticism of the government over the delay in implementing the Supreme Court order in the Church case under the guise of discussions between the two factions.
In a statement here on Thursday, Malankara association secretary Biju Oommen termed ridiculous the call for discussions as the opposing faction had run out of all other options. The Patriarch faction’s attempts to unleash a fake campaign among the faithful were not going to work out in the long run.
Despite criticism from the Supreme Court of the State government’s inaction, the authorities had dug in their heels and were keeping on acting as if the order was not binding on them. This was indeed frustrating and amounted to denial of justice.
The apex court had repeatedly made it clear that implementing its order was the only way out of the present situation. The Orthodox faction decided to back out from these discussions as it served no purpose. Against this backdrop, the Church had decided to proceed with contempt proceedings against the delay in implementing the court order.
In its order on July 2, 2019, the Supreme Court stated that the dispute should be settled only on the basis of its earlier order on July 3, 2017. It further noted that “the State and all parties should abide by the judgment passed by this court in totality and cannot solve the matter in any manner different than the judgment passed by this court”.
