MADURAI: Stating that courts should avoid interfering in internal religious matters, the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Tuesday set aside an order passed by a single judge of the court appointing a judge administrator to conduct elections for the CSI-Tirunelveli Diocese.
A bench of Justices CV Karthikeyan and R Sakthivel passed the order while allowing a batch of appeals filed by the Church of South India (CSI) and the CSI Synod, challenging the single judge’s order, dated October 28, 2025.
The judges noted that the petitioners had challenged an internal communication dated May 22, 2025, issued by the Synod for appointing an administrative committee consisting of 15 members for the general management of the Diocese.
The committee was also tasked with conducting elections to form a new Diocesan council, since the old council expired on April 12, 2024. But, claiming that the Synod had no authority to issue such a communication, the petitioners moved the court seeking appointment of a retired judge as an administrator, based on which the single judge had passed the above order.
The division bench said it is unable to understand as to what law of the land had been violated or what freedom of the three petitioners had been affected by Synod’s communication. Synod is the supreme body, and its authority over the diocese can never be questioned, it observed.
The bench further criticised the petitioners for acting with vengeance and engaging in adversarial litigation, instead of taking reconciliatory measures.
They also wondered as to how the writ petitions were maintained against an internal communication of the Synod, when there is no public duty or public element involved. Though the single judge had relied upon a 2024 Full Bench judgment, the division bench took a different stand. Setting aside the single judge’s order, the bench directed the Registry to place the above question of law and the Full Bench’s view before the Chief Justice of Madras HC for re-examination.