The court established that the licence granted to the Catholic Young Men's Association was revocable based on conditions set by the church, affirming the authority of the Vicar to represent the church in legal matters.

JUDGMENT

These three appeals arise out of the concurrent findings of the Additional Munsiff’s Court, Alappuzha, in judgment and decree dated 23.9.2009 in OS Nos.252/2004 and 802/2003 and that of the Additional District Court, Alappuzha, in judgment and decree dated 28.2.2013 in AS Nos.119/2009, 120/2009 and 121/2009.

2. The brief facts necessary for the disposal of the appeals are as follows:

St.Michaels Church is a Roman Catholic Church under the Arch Diocese of Changanacherry. Under the St.Michaels Church, an unregistered association of young catholic men was formed and was named as Catholic Young Men’s Association (CYMA). The Association was formed in the year 1922 from among the members of the parishioners. While so, an application was given for allotment of the land belonging to St.Michaels Church, in order to enable the Catholic Young Men’s Association to establish a rest house as well as a library. This was done presumably expecting a grant from the then Government. Accordingly, an application was given to the Church by the Catholic Young Men’s Association seeking allotment of the land. The said application was processed by the general body (hereinafter referred to as ’pothuyogam’, for short) of the Church in its meeting held on 28.11.1926 and decided to accept the application on certain conditions. One of the conditions is that, the land, if required in future for the Church, should be returned by the Catholic Young Men’s Association, subject to the entitlement to receive the cost of the construction. Under the hierarchy of the Church, the decision of the pothuyogam has to be approved by the Bishop. Hence, after the decision, the Church forwarded the application along with the decision for the approval of the Bishop. It is stated that the Bishop wanted to peruse the byelaw of the Association and hence, granted permission temporarily until the approval is given to the byelaw. Later, in the year 1946, the Catholic Young Men’s Association made a further request for allotment of additional land for the purpose of making a playground. The said request was also accepted subject to certain conditions. The matter continued like this for nearly six decades. However, it appears that various inter se disputes arose between the members of the Catholic Young Men’s Association regarding the management of the Association. However, for the purpose of consideration of these appeals, it may not be necessary to delve into those facts. Be that as it may, it appears that the pothuyogam of the Church passed a resolution on 31.8.2003 seeking to withdraw the permission granted to the Catholic Young Men’s Association and decided to revoke the permission. The said resolution was forwarded to the Bishop, who issued Kalpana No.922/2003 on 31.10.2003, which led to the Catholic Young Men’s Association filing OS No.802/2003 seeking for a prohibitory injunction against the Church from forcefully evicting them from the plaint schedule property. Finding that the Catholic Young Men’s Association had no intention to vacate the premises, St.Michaels Church filed OS No.252/2004 seeking for a mandatory injunction directing the Catholic Young Men’s Association to furnish the accounts regarding the expenditure incurred by them for the construction of the building, so that they can pay the aforesaid amount and re