A civil court in Chennai has ordered the arrest of A M Chinnappa (pic), Archbishop of Madras-Mylapore by December 7.
The order was passed by the X Assistant Judge of the City Civil Court while passing orders on an execution petition from J Francis Borgia and S Santhanam of Pattabiram, who contended that the Archbishop had not responded to the court’s earlier orders.
Originally, plaintiffs (Borgia and Santhanam, vice-president and central president of the Catholic Laity Society of India in Pattabiram, respectively) moved the City Civil Court with an original side application for a direction to the defendants (Chinnappa and K M Alwin, parish priest, Church of Our Lady of Health, Pattabiram Military Siding, Avadi) to furnish the audited statement of accounts of the church for 2006-07, 2007-08 and 2008-09, now in the possession of Judgment Debtor-1. The court accordingly decreed the suit. As there was no response from the defendants, the plaintiffs filed an execution petition. The X Assistant Judge observed: “Direction warrant already served. Document not produced. Hence arrest by December 7.”