Tuesday’s stinging criticism against the Kerala government on the longstanding Orthodox-Jacobite church dispute has exposed the duplicity of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
Just last year, Pinarayi was in terrible and unprecedented haste in implementing the September 28 Supreme Court order on women entry into Sabarimala. The CM went to town saying that he was constitutionally and duty-bound to implement the order in letter and spirit.
But he conveniently chose not to implement a Supreme Court order of 2017 concerning the church dispute. On Tuesday, Pinarayi’s pontification as a stern implementer of SC verdicts came back to haunt him.
The SC verdict that Pinarayi failed to implement was delivered on July 3, 2017, that awarded the entire property and control of the Malankara Church to the St Mary Orthodox faction, including churches, parishes, and cemeteries that today are with the Jacobite Church. The constitution of the Orthodox Church drafted and adopted in 1934 was made binding on the church.