We will not be cowed down, we may be frail but we will do our Dharma: Kerala High Court appeals to lawyers in Kothamangalam Church case

In an impassioned appeal, Justice Alexander Thomas of the Kerala High Court on Friday urged lawyers to act as High Priests of Law so as to enable the Bench to be prophets..In an emphatic declaration, the judge said,“We are urging our good friends of the bar to rise up to the occasion and to really become the High Priest of Law, to enable the bench to become the prophets of law. Without you, we are nothing. .. we can’t work with Google, without the Bar we cannot even move one step forward, no two ways about it, not with any kind of artificial intelligence. Whatever… we have, at the end of the day without the high priest of law the temple of justice cannot function… at the end of the day, please keep this in mind, please don’t force us to say this again and again.".Whatever the cause you are espousing, please have some concern for the temple of justice.Justice Alexander Thomas.Justice Thomas’ passionate appeal came in response to an intervention application filed on behalf of one of the respondents in the contentious Kothamangalam Church dispute. The intervenor, a respondent in the Kerala High Court’s 2019 judgment handing management of the Church to the Orthodox faction, sought to be included in the appeal against the High Court’s interim order in the proceedings for non-compliance with the 2019 judgment.The request prompted Justice Thomas to recount his experience with a previous intervening applicant in the case who had sought to appeal against the interim order. As per the judge, a lawyer for that applicant had made unconstitutional submissions to the Bench and attacked the opposite parties, preventing the Bench from hearing the appeal at hand. The counsel who appeared apparently told the Court that it would be permitting a second Operation Blue Star if it allowed the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) takeover order to continue, among other statements..Emphasizing that the case at hand was a sensitive matter, widely spoken-about over social media and elsewhere, the judge lamented that the Court not only had to sit at the receiving end of public censure, but was also subjected to unwarranted allegations by unrelated third parties who had not even followed procedure while filing.“The kind of extreme pressures and burdens which have constrained many judges to avoid this case, cases of this nature, not only this case! It leads to a situation whereby anybody touches the case, does something, he’s branded x y or z and to top it all, this kind of other submissions also whereby we are constrained from hearing the appeal and that too for a third party who has not even filed his appeal,” the judge said..Justice Thomas went on to declare that the Court will not be cowed down or intimidated. “We will not be cowed down, we will not be intimidated by whatever kind of social media messages whatever kind of thing you may write, we will not look into that at all...we will do our dharma, we may go wrong you can correct it in the manner of the law. We’re not perfect, we are frail human beings, but we’ll do our best, we will do our best, but please allow us to do it!.During the course of the hearing, advocate Mathews J Nedumpara informed the Bench that it was perhaps referring to a junior associate of his who made the submissions that so irked the Court. He went on to assert that his junior associate did not make the submissions of the sort recounted by the Court. His client was not a third party as expressed by the Court but a believer, he went on to state.To this, Justice Thomas responded,“Did you hear it Mr Vijayakumar (Assistant Solicitor General) , Mr State Attorney, Order does not say (but) he used these two words (Operation Bluestar).. and Mr Nedumpara, you’re now third party, your leave application is not numbered, please don’t disturb now. We told you 101 times…".Assistant Solicitor General P Vijaykumar averred that he endorsed the stand taken by the Court and confirmed the Court’s account of what transpired at the previous hearing.The judge orally directed counsel for the State and the Assistant Solicitor General to advise on the contours of law governing contempt in the face of the court, but also indicated that such proceedings would not be pressed if things were smooth..Justice Thomas also touched upon the need for preservation of the Bar, and requested lawyers to remember that they were officers of the Court..The Bench of Justice Alexander Thomas and TR Ravi is hearing appeals against a controversial order passed by a single-judge Bench directing the CRPF takeover of the Kothamangalam Church if the Kerala government fails to implement the High Court's December 2019 judgment.At the admission hearing of the appeal last week, the takeover order was stayed, with the Division Bench stating that the issue of a single-judge Bench issuing an interim order in a contempt proceeding needed a detailed hearing..The Centre informed the Court today that it intended to file a review petition in respect of the portion of the order calling for the CRPF takeover..Remarking that it would wait till the review petition was filed, the Court proceeded to adjourn the matter by two weeks..The Kothamangalam church, a constituent of the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church, is presently at the centre of a bitter feud between the Jacobite (the Patriarch faction) and Orthodox factions of the Church..In December 2019, the Kerala High Court had ordered the removal of all persons squatting inside the Church and its compound and takeover of its precincts and its movables. The High Court had also rejected the State’s claim that the Patriarch faction had to be “convinced by persuasion” to accept their failure in the litigation.