Supreme Court stays demolition of CSI church in Tamil Nadu

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed a Madras High Court order directing the demolition of a Christian CSI church at Thippanampatti village of Tamil Nadu's Tenkasi district [Tirunelveli Diocesan Trust Association v. The District Collector].

A Bench of Justices Vikram Nath, R Mahadevan, and Aparesh Kumar Singh also sought the response of the Tamil Nadu government and other respondents on a Special Leave Petition (SLP) challenging the High Court's October 1 judgment.

The case concerned a building that has been used for prayer services by members of the Church of South India (CSI) in Thippanampatti village since 2016.

Earlier, a church built around 1972 was being used for prayer services. However, since the old church was too small to accommodate all church-going members, a decision was taken to shift to a new church. In 2014, a CSI Trust purchased 10 cents of land and got permission to use the property to build a CSI community hall. In 2016, a church spire was added to the building and the premises began to be used as a church.

However, in June 2016, a local resident named Balakrishna Prabhu moved a plea before the Madras High Court urging it to direct the District Collector to consider his representation seeking a restraint on the construction and operation of the building as a church. During these proceedings, the State informed the Court that no application was made to use the building as a church. In response, the Diocese's counsel agreed to submit an application seeking such permission.

The District Collector later rejected the Diocese's plea for permission to continue using the premises as a church citing potential law and order concerns.

On October 1, the Madras High Court dismissed the Diocese's challenge to the District Collector's order and directed that the church spire be pulled down and the building be restored to a community hall.

The High Court accepted the State's justification for the District Collector's order, including concerns that there appeared to be a "rift between two religious groups."

The Tirunelveli Diocesan Trust Association has now approached the Supreme Court challenging this ruling.

The Trust has contended that the orders passed by the District Collector and the High Court were based on non-existent law and order issues, violating the Christian minority community's fundamental rights under Articles 14, 25, and 26 of the Constitution.

According to the plea, weekly prayers have been conducted in the village for over a century without any issue.

The Trust has argued that no clash has occurred in the village in the last 100 years. It highlighted that the High Court erred by relying solely on local demographics - 450 Hindu families versus 10 Christian families - to presume a threat to public peace.

"The only one person objecting to the functioning of the church is Respondent No. 7 (Prabhu), who does not represent the 450 Hindu families in the village who have cordial relations with the Christians families. In this regard, the finding of the High Court that 'there is definitely a rift between two religious groups' is wholly baseless and unsubstantiated ... Demographic predominance cannot, by itself, justify refusing a minority congregation permission for peaceful worship," the plea states.

After hearing preliminary submissions in the matter, the Supreme Court today stayed the demolition directions and sought responses from the State authorities.

Senior Advocate Huzefa Ahmadi along with advocates Vishal Sinha and K Paari Vendhan appeared for the Church association.