Supreme Court Dismisses Cardinal George Alencherry's Plea To Quash Criminal Cases Over Land Scam

In a set back to Cardinal George Alencherry, the Major Archbishop of Syro-Malabar Church, the Supreme Court on Friday refused to quash the criminal cases against him over alleged irregularities in the sale of properties belonging to Ernakulam-Angamalay Archdiocese.The Court dismissed the Special Leave Petition filed by George Alencherry against the judgment delivered by the Kerala High Court in August 2021 which refused to quash the criminal proceedings against him over the land scam.Noting that the trial court, sessions court and the High Court held that a prima facie case was made out against the petitioner, the Supreme Court stated : "In view of the said observations made and prima facie findings recorded by the three courts below as regards the alleged involvement of the appellant in the alleged offences, this Court is not inclined to interfere with the same"."Just as it is necessary to curtail vexatious and frivolous complaints against innocent persons, it is equally essential to punish the guilty after conducting a fair trial", the Court said.At the same time, the Supreme Court expressed displeasure towards the subsequent orders passed by the single bench of the High Court in Alencherry's petition (after refusing to quash the case against him).Apart from the Cardinal, the Eparchy of Bathery and the Catholic Diocese of Thamarassery had also filed SLPs challenging the general observations made by the High Court that Bishops have no power to alienate church assets."We express our displeasure towards the subsequent orders passed by the High Court and quashed them. At the same time, dismissed the appeal and SLPs. Subsequent orders,which have been passed after the impugned order, are quashed. The impugned judgment is upheld with certain observations and directions", Justice Bela Trivedi said at the time of judgment pronouncement.Also held in the judgment- No Finality For Kerala HC's Observation That Church Assets Are Public Trusts & Not Governed By Canon Law : Supreme Court While reserving the judgment in January, the bench comprising Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Bela Trivedi had questioned the approach taken by the single bench of the High Court in continuing to issue further directions in the matter, after the dismissal of the Section 482 CrPC petition filed by the Cardinal. It may be recalled that last year, the High Court had issued follow-up directions to the State to identify public properties encroached by religious trusts. The High Court had also recommended that the Central Government should bring a uniform law to regulate religious trusts.The dispute pertains to the execution of various sale deeds in respect of properties held by the Syro Malabar Church, a religious congregation allegedly without compliance with the requirements as per the bye-laws of the Church causing heavy financial losses to the church and its parishioners.It was also alleged that valuable properties were disposed of at throwaway prices are the result of a criminal conspiracy hatched between the Alencherry in collusion with his henchmen and the persons who had purchased the properties. He is facing charges for cheating, criminal breach of trust, forgery, criminal conspiracy etc., punishable under Section 120 B, 406, 409, 418, 420, 423, 465, 467, 468 and 34 of IPC for his offences.No finality for High Court's observations on canon lawThe Court clarified that the observations made by the Kerala High Court in Cardinal George Alencherry's case regarding canon law and the power of the Bishops to alienate church assets are prima facie in nature and no finality can be attached to them.The Kerala High Court had observed that church assets are to be treated as public trusts and the canon law provisions conferring unilateral powers to Bishops to alienate church assets must be construed as subject to Section 92 of the Code of Civil Procedure. Taking exception to the general findings made by the Kerala High Court about canon law, two Catholic dioceses- Diocese of Thamarassery and Eparchy of Bathery- filed separate Special Leave Petitions in the Supreme Court. These petitions were considered by the Supreme Court along with the petition filed by Alencherry seeking quashing of the cases.While dismissing Alencherry's petition, the Supreme Court clarified that the High Court's observations (from para 17 to 39 in the judgment) on Canon Law are only prima facie in nature.A bench comprising Justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Bela Trivedi stated as follows :"After having gone through the impugned order passed by the High Court, more particularly the observations made in para 17 to 39 thereof that the said prima facie observations were made in response to the submissions made by the learned counsels for the parties relying upon various decisions of this Court as regards the powers and authority of the Archbishop of Archdiocese with regard to the temporal and spiritual affairs of the Churches. Of course, certain observations are omnibus and general in ...

Supreme Court Dismisses Cardinal George Alencherry's Plea To Quash Criminal Cases Over Land Scam

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