Pulinthanam church turns a crucible as police try to implement SC order

Idukki: The police seem to be on a wing and a prayer as they trooped a third time in the recent past at the St. John’s Besfage Jacobite Syrian Church, Pulinthanam, on Wednesday to implement the Supreme Court order on governance as per the 1934 bylaw. 

The SC had ordered in 2017 that the St. John’s Besfage Jacobite Syrian Church, Pulinthanam, in Ernakulam district be governed as per the 1934 bylaw by the Orthodox faction. 

However, the Ernakulam Rural Police faced stiff opposition from the Jacobite faction of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church (MOSC) and the impasse continued late on Wednesday. The priests and laity belonging to the Jacobite and Orthodox sects took positions inside and outside the church respectively even as 150 police personnel threw a cordon around the campus. The police contingent was led by an assistant commissioner and a deputy superintendent of police and 10 inspectors. 

Some 60 people from the Jacobite faction stood at the gate, virtually preventing the police from taking any action. As asked by the police, 10 representatives of the Orthodox faction arrived outside the church to let their priest take over the church as per the SC order.

“I have not yet got a final report from the DySP concerned. I have been told that a group including children, women, men, and priests were protesting at the church gate. The use of force may create a law-and-order situation. The High Court had given a directive to implement the SC order and in the hearing scheduled to be held on Thursday at (HC) we will be handing over our report,” Ernakulam District Police Chief (Rural) Vaibhav Saxena told Onmanorama.

The Jacobite sect led by priest Eldose Parakka Puthanpura confronted the policemen who reached the church at 10 am. He said they had moved the SC against the High Court order, adding that any action by the police should be held back till the SC’s verdict. 

Police staging drama: Orthodox faction

The Orthodox faction, led by Fr. CK Issac Cor Episcopa and Vicar Philip Arimbanchira (a priest with the Orthodox faction), refused to return from the church gate even at night and were on their car when this report was filed. 

“This is the fourth time the police have asked us to come to implement the SC order passed in 2017. There were 150 cops and nearly 60 people on the Jacobite side preventing the implementation of the court order. The police could have arrested and removed them to make way for our priest to enter the church,” Aby Iype of the Orthodox faction said.

He said that no laity would be ousted from the church if the Orthodox priests took over the governance.  The legal battle between the Jacobite and Orthodox factions in MOSC started way back in 1970 on whether the bylaw of 1934 needed to be implemented. In 2017, the SC ordered that the bylaw be implemented for all the 1,065 churches of MOSC, Aby Iype said. 

“In 300 churches with a Jacobite majority, the SC order could not be implemented and the Orthodox faction had to approach all levels of judiciary, from Munsif courts to HC, to get the SC order implemented. Out of the 300 churches with Jacobite domination, the order has been implemented in 55,” he added.