The main legal point established in the judgment is that the grounds for review must demonstrate a mistake or error apparent on the face of the record, and in the absence of such demonstration, the review petition will be dismissed.

JOSEPH VITHAYATHIL, J.

This is a petition filed on behalf of respondents 1 and 2 under O. 45, R. 1 of the Travancore CPC corresponding to O. 47, R. 1 of the Indian Code, to review the judgment passed in A.S. No. 1 of 1119 by a Full Bench consisting of three Judges of the erstwhile Travancore High Court. For a proper appreciation to the points raised in this review petition it is necessary to have an idea about the history of the controversy between the parties. The plaint properties belong to the Malankara Jacobite Syrian Church. According to the plaintiffs, the Patriarch of Antioch is the ecclesiastical head of this church while according to the defendants he is only the spiritual head. The position of the Patriarch in relation to the Malankara Jacobite Syrian Church was declared by the Royal Court of Final Appeal, Travancore; in 1064, in the ‘EXT DY’, which resulted in the formation of the Marthomite Church in Malabar. It was held in that case:-

“that the ecclesiastical supremacy of the see of Antioch over the Syrian Church in Travancore has been all along recognised and acknowledged by the Jacobite Syrian community and their Metropolitans, that the exercise of that supreme power consisted in ordaining either directly or by duly authorised delegates Metropolitans from time to time to manage the spiritual matters of the local church, in sending Marone (holy oil) to be used in the churches in this country for baptismal and other purposes and in general supervision over the spiritual Government of the Church; that the authority of the Patriarch has never extended to the Government of the temporalities of the church which, in this respect, has been an independent church, and that the Metropolitan of the Syrian Jacobite church in Travancore should be a native of Malabar consecrated by the Patriarch of Antioch or by his duly authorised delegate and accepted by the people as their Metropolitan to entitle him to the spiritual and temporal Government of the local church.” (Ext. DY, page 147).

2. This was a representative suit and both tile parties in this case admit that this decision is binding on them. The power of the Patriarch in relation to the Malankara Jacobite Church again came up for consideration before a Full Bench of the Travancore High Court in the case reported in 41 TLR 1 which was an interpleader suit filed by the Secretary of State for India in 1088. That suit was occasioned by the ex-communication of Metropolitan Mar Cheevarghese Dionysius by Partnarch Abdulla II in 1086 and the appointment of Mar Kurilose as Malankara Metropolitan in his place. Mar Cheevarghese Dionysious contended that the ex-communication was invalid and that he continued to be the Malankara Metropolitan and Metropolitan Trustee. The suit was filed for a decision on the question as to who were the rightful trustees entitled to receive the interest on a fund invested with the East India Company in 1808 by the then Metropolitan of the Malankara Jacobite Syrian Church. The question that had to be decided in the suit was whether the ex-communication of Mar Cheevarghese Dionysious by the Patriarch was valid or not. The Full Bench held that :

“the Patriarch of Anitioch possesses the power of ordaining and excommunicating Episcopes and Metropolitans by himself, namely, in his own right and that it is not necessary for him to convene a Synod of Bishops and proceed by way of Synodical action in order to enable him to exercise these powers, the person ordained being, of course, a native of Malabar and accepted by the people.”

3. It was also held that the Canon, Ext. XVIII (Ext. B.P. in this case) and not Ext. A (Ext. 26 in this case) is “the version of the Canon Law that has been recognised and accepted by the Malankara Jacobite Syrian Christian Church as binding on it”. The learned Judges also held that :-

“by virtue of the powers of general supervision over the spiritual Government vested in the Patriarch as its ecclesiastical head under the judgment,