This protest is to oppose the reported move by the State government to enact a new law in the Malankara Church dispute. 

We understand that the supreme court judgement is the law of India. 

Malankara church case is the case between the Malankara Church and the Jacobite faction. 

The Supreme court of India declared that all the churches in Malankara should govern by 1934 (Malankara Constitution). The verdict was passed by the Supreme court on July 3rd 2017. 

The government of Kerala is going to pass  "The Kerala Protection of Right, Title and Interest of Parish Church Properties and Right of Worship of the Members of Malankara Church Bill-2020". This is against the July 3rd, 2017 supreme court verdict. 

In India, every citizen needs to obey the rule of the country. If any rule can change by an assembly will destroy Indian Judiciary values. 

1. Firstly, the move is unconstitutional and against the federal principles that govern the administrative system in India. Various courts in the country, from the lower level right up to the Supreme Court of India, have gone into the details of the Church dispute and pronounced verdicts in favour of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church. The Apex Court in the country have pronounced judgments in 1958, 1995, 2002 and 2017, which were all unmistakably in favour of the MOSC. After the 1958 Judgement, the so-called Jacobite faction(Patriarch faction) joined the mainstream of the Church and unity and peace prevailed in the MOSC. However, later a few vested interests raked up fresh controversies which led to a fresh bout of litigations. The  Supreme Court once again heard these cases and ruled in 1995 that the MOSC is the legal custodian of the churches and that the parish churches are to be governed by the 1934 Church Constitution. A Supreme Court-monitored election was held in 2002 which unmistakably vindicated the position of the MOSC. It is worth noting that the Jacobite faction which is now clamoring for a plebiscite in the Church had themselves boycotted when the Supreme Court itself had conducted such an election in 2002. Fresh disputes and arguments were raked up by the dissident Jacobite faction, and the Supreme Court in a landmark judgement on July 3, 2017  once again vindicated the stand and authority of the MOSC. The said judgement was unique in many ways.  It brought fresh clarity and it was unambiguous. It ruled that this judgement cannot be challenged in any court of law and that  no law can be passed to circumvent it. The Jacobites' appeals in the form of revision petitions, clarification petitions, curative petitions etc were all dismissed.

 2. In the wake of this landmark judgement, 56 parish churches which were in the illegal custody of the dissident Jacobite faction were reunited with the parent Church, viz, the MOSC, and peace and order are prevailing in all these churches. The reunification was possible with the help of the state government agencies who were duty-bound to aid the implementation of the Supreme Court Verdict. However, lately the State government appears to have developed cold-feet in the matter due to political or other extraneous considerations. 

3. As per the Indian Constitution, a Supreme Court order is the law of the land. A State Government cannot legislate new law to override the Supreme Court Judgment. The Kerala government had earlier resorted to such tactics in the Karuna Medical College issue and the Mullaperiyar Dam issue. In both the cases the State government's actions were set aside by the Supreme Court with severe strictures. The Kerala government should learn the right lessons from such ignominious fiascoes. 

4. In the Indian constitution, there is no provision for such head-counts or plebiscites to decide civil disputes. In the Babri Masjid case, the Supreme Court verdict was accepted by both the communities involved. The Central/State governments went ahead with the implementation of the Apex Court decision. Do we support any demand for plebiscites in Kashmir, the North East or elsewhere, just because a section of the people there may demand it? No, in India, the Indian Constitution is Supreme, and all governments are duty-bound to abide by it in letter and spirit.

Please join in the campaign of the protecting Judiciary and the Indian constitution.