Indian Kanoon - Search engine for Indian Law

8. In 1909 Abdulla II came to Malabar with the object of regaining his temporal authority over the Malankara Jacobite Syrian Christian Church. After his arrival he convened a meeting of the Malankara Association at the Old Seminary of Kottayam and demanded that the said Association should accept and acknowledge the temporal authority of the Patriarch. This the congregation declined to do and the meeting ended in confusion. Abdulla II thereafter started approaching the parish churches separately and attempted to get from them Udampadis (Submission Deeds) acknowledging the spiritual and tempor supremacy of the Patriarch. He actually succeeded in getting such Udampadis from some of the churches but not from many. He started rewarding persons who gave Udampadis by ordaining them as Metropolitans , and ex-communicating those who declined to do so. In 1910 Mar Poulose Athanasius (the first plaintiff in the present suit and now the respondent in the present appeal arising out of that suit) gave an Udampadi and was ordained as a Metropolitan. Mar Geevarghese Dionysius declined to submit and give any Udampadi and consequently in 1911 Abdulla II ex-communicate Mar Geeverghese Dionysius whom he himself had ordained in 1907 and ordained one Mar Kurilos as the Malankara Metropolitan so as to make him automatically the ex-officio President of the Malankara Association and one of the trustees of the trust properties. The other two trustees Kora Mathan Malpan and C..J. Kurien went over to the side of Abdulla II and acknowledged his new nominee Mar Kurilos as the Malankara Metropolitan and as such the ex-officio trustee Mar Geevarghese Dionysius retaliated by convening a meeting of the Malankara Association which declared his ex- communication invalid and removed from trusteeship the two trustees who had gone over to the side of the Patriarch and appointed two new trustees, namely, Mani Poulose Kathanar who was the second appellant but has since died and one Kora Kochu Korula also since deceased. The said meeting also resolved to enquire into the real position of Abdulla II and Abdul Messiah and suspend the payment of Ressissa to the Patriarch. Abdulla II left Malabar in October 1911 and in 1912 issued a Kalpana (message or order) branding Abdul Messiah and Mar Geevarghese Dionysius as "wolves" from whom the faithful should entirely keep aloof.

10. In the meantime in 1913 the Secretary of State for India filed an inter-pleader suit (O. S. No. 94 of 1088) in the District Court of Trivandrum. In that suit he impleaded both the sets of rival claimants as defendants, namely, (i) Mar Geevarghese Dionysius, (ii) Mani Poulose Kathanar (iii) Kora Kochu Korula being one set claiming to be trustees and

(iv) Mar Kurilos, (v) Kora Mathan Malpan, and (vi) C. J. Kurien being the other set also making the same claim.The prayer was for the determination of the question as to which of the two rival sets of trustees was entitled to draw the interest on the amounts standing to the credit of the Malankara Jacobite Syrian Christian community in the British treasury. The two rival sets of trustees filed written statement interpleading against each other, the defendants Mar Geevarghese Dionysius, Mani Poulose Kathanar and Kora Kochu Korula being treated as plaintiffs and the defendants Mar Kurilos, Kora Mathan Malpan and C. J. Kurien being treated as defendants. As will appear from paragraph 3 of the trial courts judgment (Ex. 255) pronounced on September 15, 1919, the suit was converted into a representative action on behalf of the Jacobite Syrian Christian population of Malabar with the permission of the court and notice was, given of the institution of the suit under S. 26 of the Travancore Civil Procedure Code by publishing advertisements in the several jurisdictions peopled by the Syrian Christian community. Defendants 7 to 41 got themselves impleaded in the suit as defendants and supported defendants 1 to 3. During the pendency of the suit, defendant 4, Mar Kurilos died and Mar Poulose Athanasius, who claimed to be the successor of mar Kurilos as Malankara Metropolitan, was added as defendant No. 42. By the aforesaid judgment (Ex. 255) the trial court upheld the claim of defendants Mar Geevarghese Dionysius, Mani Poulose Kathanar and Kora Kochu Korula (defendants 1 to 3) as the lawful trustees of the Church properties.

12. Mar Geevarghese Dionysius and his two co-trustees (defendants 1, 2 and

3) applied under S. 12 of the Travancore High Court Regulation 1099 for review of the aforesaid judgment of the Full Bench. That application was admitted subject to the condition that on the re-hearing the findings recorded (i) as to the authenticity of Ex. 18 the version of the Canon Law produced by the defendants S. 6 and 42, (ii) as to the power of the Patriarch to ex-communicate without the intervention of the Synod and (iii) as to the absence of an indirect motive on the part of the Patriarch which induced him to exercise his powers of ex-communication must be taken as binding. The appeal was then re-heard by a Full Bench which by its judgment pronounced on July 4, 1928 (Ex. 256), upheld the decision of the learned District Judge and confirmed his decree. That judgment will be found reported in 45 Tr. L. R. l16 (A). The ner result of that litigation, therefore, was that Mar Geevarghese Dionysius and his two co-trustees (defendants 1, 2 and 3) became finally entitled to withdraw the moneys deposited in the court as the lawful trustees of the church properties.

It must, therefore, be held that the contentions put forward in paragraphs 19 to 26 of the plaint in the present suit on which issues Nos. 14, 15, 16 and 17 have been raised were directly and substantially in issue in the interpleader suit (O. S. 94 of 1088) and had been decided by the Travancore High Court on review in favour of Mar Geevarghese Dionysius and his two co- trustee (defendants 1 to 3) and against defendants 4 to 6. In short the question whether Mar Geevarghese Dionysius and his two co-trustees (defendants 1 to 3) had become heretics or aliens or had gone out of the Church and, therefore, were not qualified for acting as trustees was in issue in the interpleader suit (O, S. No. 94 of 1088) and it was absolutely necessary to decide such issue. That judgment decided that neither (a) the repudiation of Abdulla II, nor (b) acceptance of Abdul Messiah who had ceased to be a Patriarch, nor (c) acceptance of the Catholicate with powers as hereinbefore mentioned, nor (d) the reduction of the power of the Patriarch to a vanishing point, 'ipso facto' constituted a heresy or amounted to voluntary separation by setting up a new Church and that being the position those contentions cannot be re-agitated in the present suit.