GOPALAN NAMBIAR, J. :- O. S. No. 8 of 1965 on the file of the Additional District Court, Trichur, was a representative suit, under Order 1, Rule 8 of the Civil Procedure Code by two members of the Church of the East in India, - referred to as the Chaldean Church, - for a permanent injunction restraining the 1st defendant from functioning as Metropolitan of the Church and for delivery of possession of certain moveable belonging to the Church either to the plaintiffs or to the Receiver appointed by Court. On the allegation that the 1st defendant had brought into being an elected body which was not proper or valid, another suit, O. S. No. 1061 of 1962, Munsiff's Court, Trichur, had been filed, and a Receiver had been appointed in the said suit. The present suit was instituted on 12-8-1965. The sole defendant died on 7-9-1969 at Baghdad. Thereupon, the 2nd defendant, the appellant in this appeal, was impleaded as legal representative by order on M. P. No. 813 of 1969 dated 11-3-1970. According to the plaintiff, the Patriarch of the Church, Mar Eshai Shimum XXIII, is the supreme authority of the Church of the East. It was he who had to ordain the Metropolitan, and who according