KOCHI: The Kerala High Court on Tuesday made it clear that the Supreme Court judgment in the Malankara Church dispute case cannot be allowed to be violated with impunity. “Nobody is understanding the purpose of the order being passed by the courts. This is the tragedy of the system,” observed Justice Devan Ramchandran.
The court emphasised that it did not wish to see the churches being shut down and wanted everything to work harmoniously. The parishioners wouldn’t want the churches to be shut down. “Even God would not want the churches to remain closed,” said the court.
A section of persons had deliberately chosen to misinterpret the court’s intention and was casting aspersions on it. Deprecating the practice of bombarding the chief justice with letters against him, Justice Devan Ramachandran made it clear that he did not take the insinuations against him seriously.
The court said though several attempts were being made to make the bench recuse itself from hearing the case, it would not do that no matter how strong the provocation is. It added that the matters arising from the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church row were well settled in the landmark decision of the Supreme Court in the K S Varghese case. The court is not concerned about beliefs.
“You can have your own belief, but not at the cost of rule of law. The problem here is that blood is being shed at the cost of faith. Is it worth it? Who benefits from this? Nobody seems to understand what the court wants. I made it explicitly clear in the previous order that I would be the last person to send police into a church. All I’m trying to do is find peace between the factions,” said the judge.
The court was trying to resolve the dispute which had been pending for decades. In fact, the faction, which is against the order of the court, wanted to continue the status quo. In fact, there had to be some meeting point to resolve the issue. They are free to have faith in their religion. But they should equally have faith in the constitutional principles.