Kerala church land row: Case against Cardinal George Alencherry stayed

Kochi: A division bench headed by Chief Justice Antony Dominic has stayed a single bench order to register a case against Cardinal George Alenchery, Major Archbishop of Syro-Malabar Church, in the controversial land deal case of Ernakulam-Angamaly archdiocese. The division bench posted the case for further hearing on April 3. With this, all further proceedings in the case registered by the Ernakulam central police against the cardinal and others would come to a standstill till the petition before the division bench is disposed of.

Apart from Cardinal Alenchery, two priests, Fr. Sebastian Vadakkumpadam and Fr. Joshy Puthuva, and middleman Saju Varghese are the accused. Senior Supreme Court lawyer P. Viswanathan, who appeared for the cardinal, argued that the complainant Shine Varghese had misused the legal system. He had approached the court stating that the police were not taking action a day after filing the complaint in the police station.

The single bench has not considered this aspect while ordering the police to register an FIR against the cardinal and three others in the case. The police were not given the time to examine the matter and its legal merits by the complainant, the counsel pointed out. The division bench granted the stay after taking into account the merits of the arguments of the counsel. Other aspects of the case, including the authority of the court to intervene in matters of the Church, are expected to be considered during the hearings in the coming days.