Kerala High Court
C.V. Variath, Son Of Variath Cheeran And ... vs Cheriyakku Iyapooru, Son Of ... on 5 December, 2002
Bench: G. Sivarajan, P.R. Raman
JUDGMENT Sivarajan, J.
1. This is a petition for police protection filed by the two members belonging to the Patriarch faction among the parishioners of Pengamukku Church at Kunnamkulam. They sought for a direction to the 5th respondent and his subordinates to take effective and adequate action by granting police protection to the petitioners' group for the conduct of evening prayers on all days of the week, conduct all religious services on Wednesday and Saturdays and other days important from a religious point of view, conduct Christmas services, conduct Easter Services and conduct of annual festival and all functions connected therewith in the St. Peter's and St. Paul's Jacobite Syrian Church, Pengamukku, without any obstructions from respondents 1 to 3 or any one claiming under them until a new managing committee of the Pengammukku Church is elected in accordance with the proceedings initiated in E.P. No. 89 of 2001 in O.s. No. 4 of 1987 for the execution of the decree of a Division Bench of this Court in A.F.A. No. 19 of 2001, in the interest of justice.
2. We have heard Sri. N. Sankara Menon, learned counsel appearing for the petitioners. We are not inclined to entertain this writ petition for the reason that the very same petitioners had approached this court for almost the similar relief by filing O.P. No. 6574 of 2002 and on reference by a learned Single Judge, a Division bench of this Court to which one of us (Sivarajan, J.) was a party dismissed the said writ petition by judgment dated 25th March, 2002 (Ext.P12). The judgment reads as follows:
This O.P. appears to be a very acute way of asking this Court to interfere in a matter where this Court cannot.
2. There is raging dispute between two factions of the church, One known as Catholicos and the other known as Patriarch, which has been the subject matter of several litigations and has been finally decided by the judgment of this Court in A.F.A. No. 19 of 2001 rendered by Division Bench of P.K. Balasubramanyam and M. Ramachandran, JJ. The Division Bench upheld the order of the District Judge, with slight modification & permitted the appellant - Patriarch Faction - to hold the services in the Church between 10.45 to 12.45 p.m. on Sundays.
Apparently, the District Court gave no relief with regard to special occasions like Easter, Christmas & so on.
3. On an earlier occasion, with regard to the conducting of service during Christmas, an application was moved vide Ext.R1(e). This application styled as a civil miscellaneous petition sought the same prayers with regard to the conducting of services during Christmas. Another Division Bench of this Court dismissed the application as misconceived and not maintainable.
4. This time, there is an ingenious attempt to enter the Court by a side door. O.P. 6574 of 2002 is filed and the State and Police Officers are made parties. The prayer in O.P. is to grant adequate Police Protection to the petitioner - Patriarch group - to conduct is the services from 23.03.2002 to 31.03.2002. The learned single judge took the view that matter was covered by the direction of the Supreme Court, but since we had dealt with the matter in W.A. 407 of 2002, it would be better that the Division Bench decides it.
5. We have heard the learned Counsel for the petitioners and the respondents. In our view, there is no need for us to make any order for the so-called "Police Protection". Under the decree of the Civil court, petitioners - Patriarch Faction, have no right of conducting services in the church except on Sundays. We are unable to modify that order in the present Original Petition, which is brought in the guise of a petition under Article 226 for the so-called "Police Protection". We see no substance in the petition."
3. Petitioners took up the matter by way of Special Leave Petition - SLP (Civil) 7166 of 2002. The Supreme Court passed in interim order on 28.3.2002 as follows:
"The vicar of St. Peters and St. Paul's Syrian Orthodox Church, Pengamukku, Trichur shall specify the time when each of the two factions can conduct their religious services on 29th, 30th and 31st of March, 2002, and the time shall be so fixed by the Vicar so as to enable the petitioners to conduct their services during the timings fixed by him. Similar opportunity should be granted to the Catholicos to conduct their service on these three days at the hours fixed by the Vicar. It will be the responsibility of the petitioners to approach the Vicar of the said Church, who will fix the timings in the manner indicated in this order."
4. Later, the Supreme Court, by order dated 11.11.2002, disposed of the said Special leave Petition as infructuous. It is seen that the petitioners had also filed I.A. No. 2/2002 in the said S.L.P. on 10.10.2002. It is stated in the original petition that since the S.L.P. itself was disposed of as infructuous, this application was not considered.
5. As we have already noted, we had rejected a similar prayer made in this original petition by our judgment dated 25.3.2002 in O.P. 6574 of 2002. No special or changed circumstances is brought to our notice for taking a different view in the matter.
6. We have also heard the learned Advocate General, appearing for the 5th respondent. He submits that there is no law and order situation prevailing and that as and when any law and order problems arises, certainly the State will take care of the situation. This submission is recorded.
In the above circumstances, we dismiss this original petition in limine.