Kochi: The Kerala High Court has ruled that Catholic priests and nuns can claim ownership rights over their ancestral property. The HC made it clear that the earlier view that a priest/nun suffer a civil death on joining a monastery was no longer good in law in the case of civil rights. “There is absolutely no statutory prohibition for a priest or nun in the matter of intestate or testamentary succession of property of course in his/her personal capacity,” a division bench held. It further held that such a person cannot be automatically deprived of their property rights acquired either by way of intestate or testamentary succession, due to the mere factum of joining a religious order and having renounced worldly pleasures. The court allowed the appeal and granted partition as sought by the defendant, passing a preliminary decree in this regard.
The Bench issued the order on an appeal challenging a lower court verdict against the denial of right over ancestral property only on the ground that the claimant is a priest. Court was considering a petition filed by a priest who inherited a certain property from his parents by way of a joint will. He subsequently joined the vocation of becoming a priest. His deceased brother’s children, filed a suit for partition for the aforementioned property, claiming to eschew his share as the defendent is a priest. The lower court allowed the suit permitting partition. The priest filed an appeal before the case.
The court held that though such a person would severe relations and renounce worldly pleasures on being a nun or priest, the same cannot amount to civil death as per the Indian Succession Act. The court also added that such persons in the above circumstances cannot be deprived to enjoy the property gained either by testamentary or intestate succession.
“To hold that one would suffer a ‘civil death’ and be deprived of his property on entering into the Holy Order would be a naked infringement of Article 300-A of the Constitution of India. Of course, it is the volition of a Hindu ascetic or a Christian priest to relinquish his right over his personal property in favour of a Mutt or Monastery in a manner known to law. But there cannot be any automatic deprivation of property acquired by way of intestate or testamentary succession by the mere fact that one has entered into the religious order and renounced his worldly pleasures,” the order said.
