The 2nd defendant in O.S. No.302/2002 of the Munsiff's Court, Adoor has come up with the Second Appeal by challenging the judgment and decree passed by the Additional District Court, Pathanamthitta in A.S. No. 172/2005.

2. The 2nd defendant is originally styled as Salem Marthoma Church, Chathannoopuzha, represented by its Mooppan Pappan, Nellikunnil veedu, Vayala Muri, Erathu village.

3. Four persons namely, Pappachan Biji, Kutty Amma Pappachan, Ammini Kunjappay and Samuel, filed O.S. No. 302/2002 as a simple suit for injunction seeking the following relief:-

"The defendants or persons claiming under them shall not make use of plaint D, E and F schedule properties for burying the dead or disposal of the dead or to transform it as a burial ground, without obtaining licence from the District Collector under the Kerala Burial and Burning Ground Rules, 1967."

The title of the Rule noted above is patently wrong and the plaintiff might have intended it as 'Kerala Panchayat (Burial and Burning Grounds), Rules 1967' (hereinafter referred to as 1967 Rules').

4. The case of the plaintiffs is that the defendants in the suit are making use of plaint D, E and F schedule properties for the