JUDGMENT

R. M. SAHAI, J.— When Lord Jesus Christ was asked by a youngman who was possessed of property what was the road to heaven, the Holy Bible records it in Chapter 19 of the New Testament - the Gospel According to St. Mathew thus,

"16. And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life?

17. And he said unto him. Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God; but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments.

18. He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness,

19. Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

20. The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up : what lack I yet?

21. Jesus said unto him, if thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven : and come and follow me.

22. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful : for he had great possessions."

Turning away sorrowful, is the long and short of this litigation between two rival groups of Jacobite Christian Community of Malabar which has been doing on for more than hundred years apparently for religious and spiritual supremacy over the Church but really for administrative control and temporal powers over vast assets which have accumulated out of 3000 star pagodas created in Trust in 1808 for charitable purposes by one Moran Mar Marthoma VI popularly called Dionysius the Great. This is the third round between the parties in this Court, the two earlier being in 1954 and 1959. While deciding the appeal in 1959 this Court had observed that the dispute had been going on for a considerable length of time which has brought in its train protracted litigation involving ruinous costs. The effect of the decision was that for sometime both the parties resolved their differences by mutual adjustment, but those who hoped - fondly, as events have proved, that the decision of the SC in Moran Mar Basselios Catholicos v. Thukalan Paulo Avira, 1958 Ker LT 721, and the reported reconciliation following upon that decision would give the quietus to the litigation, prolific, prolonged and ruinous, arising out of the faction in the Malankara Jacobite Syrian Church between what is known as the Patriarchs party on the one hand and what is known as the Catholicos party on the other, counted without the resourcefulness of those entrenched in and of those covetous of positions of power, and we dare say of profit, and of those who, for one reason or another, have a vested interest in the continuance of the dispute. (Raman Nayar, J. in Appeal Suit No. 26 of 1960 decided on 3rd April 1964).

2. How the much negotiated peace and quiet arrived at by written adjustments worked out by issuing letters from both the groups was shaken even before expiry of 15 years since the judgment was delivered by this Court in September, 1958 and what led to filing of numerous suits eight of which were consolidated by the Additional District Judge but were heard and decided by a learned single Judge of the High Court, as they were transferred under orders of this Court, and were ultimately decided in appeal and cross-objections by the Division Bench giving rise to these appeals and various legal issues including whether the suit under Section 9 of the Code of Civil Procedure was maintainable, effect of Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act, 1991 and whether the decision in earlier suit filed by the appellants operated as res judicata can be, better, appreciated if the history how the Malankara Church came to be established, what is its nature and how the two groups Patriarch of Antioch and Catholicos came to be formed leading to internecine struggle and litigation may be noticed in brief. The adversorial duel between the two rival groups has assumed so much of publicity that it has fo