On Monday, Kerala police tried to enforce the Supreme Court verdict favouring the Orthodox side at the St. Thomas Jacobite Syrian Cathedral Great Church, South Mazhuvannoor, where the ongoing Orthodox vs Jacobite dispute. It led to violent protests. The situation remained the same at St.John’s Besfage Jacobite Syrian Church, Pulinthanam.
Authorities withdrew again due to aggressive tactics adopted by the Jacobite Christian sect believers. The police retreated after strong protests by the believers, mainly women, children and priests. This is the eighth time authorities aborted the attempt to take over Pulinthanam Church.
On Sunday, the police reached the church around 6 pm and stationed themselves at the main gates. Around nine o’clock on Monday morning, there were about two hundred policemen, including women police. The police tried to implement the court verdict through consensus discussion, but the Christian believers refused to give in.
The police team arrived under the leadership of Ernakulam Rural ASP Mohit Rawat IPS. Muvattupuzha Tehsildar K.M. Josukutty, DySP P.M. Baiju were there. Police stationed water cannons at the main gate of the church. They were there to protect revenue officials who had also reached the spot.
But the church’s main gate was locked, and the believers stood inside shouting inflammatory slogans as usual. Women and children stopped police attempts to enter the churches by holding hands at the gate. The police cut a chain that had closed the gate with an electric cutter but withdrew from the operation due to strong internal resistance.
Meanwhile, six people were admitted to Kothamangalam Baselios Hospital due to physical ailments. Two women fainted, and another was injured in the melee at Pulintanam Church.
The sect violence was led by Jacobite Church Metropolitan Mathews Mar Aprem, Mathews Mar Timothy, Clerical Trustee Fr. Roy George Katachira, Almaya Trustee Tambu George Tukalan, and Church Secretary Jacob C. Mathew.
In May 2023, The Kerala High Court ordered the police to protect the vicars of the Malankara Church’s Orthodox faction while they enter and perform religious services in six Jacobite-controlled churches, cemeteries, and chapels. The court has also ruled that parishioners who attend religious services be protected from obstruction by Jacobite faction members.
The court stated that the churches were constituent parish churches of the Malankara Church and that the Supreme Court’s decision in the K.S. Varghese case applied to them and their lands. The highest court has particularly asked that all parish churches of the Malankara Church follow its orders and decree.
According to the Orthodox faction vicars, Jacobites were physically blocking them from benefiting from the Supreme Court’s decision in the K.S. Varghese case by sitting inside the churches and locking the entrances. The petitioners were permitted to carry out their duties because they were appointed correctly vicars, which the Supreme Court upheld. The police had an obligation to provide adequate assistance in ensuring that the Supreme Court’s orders were followed.
In the context of the Supreme Court’s order to take over the church and hand it over, the police team reached the Churches. The Kerala High Court had instructed the police to take over the church and hand it over by the 25th of this month. Meanwhile, the believers who came to pray on Sunday are still protesting inside the church.
The communist government is of the view that deploying undue force to enforce the court verdict was improper. Is this why Kerala police are helpless spectators?
The communist stand is the exact opposite of what they did in Sabarimala temple following a supreme court order. There, they used excessive police force against Hindu lady devotees and sent immoral, radical leftist women inside the temple.
With the authorities aborting the move to take over and transfer authority of two parishes in Ernakulam on Monday, the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church has criticised the government for failing to enforce the Supreme Court judgement on the Malankara Church conflict.
Addressing the media, Youhanon Mar Diascoros Metropolitan accused the government of arranging a show on behalf of the Jacobite faction to discredit the Supreme Court’s ruling in the church conflict. Authorities notified the Jacobites in advance and allowed them to position themselves inside the church to create a law and order issue, he accused.
The High Court will hear the Orthodox vs Jacobite case again on the 25th.
