KOCHI: The state government on Friday submitted before the High Court that status quo will be maintained with regard to the relics of St Yeldho Mar Baselios Bava, kept in the ‘Madbaha’ (Altar) of St Thomas Church at Kothamangalam here.
“As of now, there are no concerns related to law and order on the church premises and nobody has taken away the relics,” the government said.
The government made the submission on a petition filed by Fr Thomas Paul Ramban, the vicar of the Orthodox faction of St Thomas Church, Kothamangalam, seeking a directive to the police to invoke the Kerala Police Act to prevent any untoward incidents in the church. He said unfortunate incidents took place on the church premises on September 19, in which the petitioner, other priests, parishioners and even cops were brutally manhandled and suffered serious injuries at the hands of Jacobite faction leaders. He said the cops’ failure to invoke the Kerala Police Act led to absolute lawlessness and a situation where a group of people stole the holy remains of the saint, in absolute violation of the SC judgment favouring the Orthodox faction.
“The St Thomas Church is a constituent parish of the Malankara Orthodox Church which should be administered under the 1934 Constitution of the Malankara Orthodox Church,” he said. Fr Thomas Paul Ramban said despite his appointment as vicar, he had not been permitted by the members of Patriarch faction to enter the church.