Kerala HC says church can't expel people marrying outside diocese; stays trial court order

Keeping in abeyance a stay order by an appellate court in Kottayam district, on September 10, the Kerala High Court said that the said order by Additional District Court stands 'flawed' which banished people from a Church for marrying someone of their choice and even outside the community. The Kerala HC said that the order did not exercise its discretion judiciously in the curtailment and violation of the fundamental right of a citizen to marry any person of their choice/will. The matter is concerning a civil court's order in Kerala that ruled that the practice of expelling a member from a church for marrying outside the community is unconstitutional for being violative of the right to marry under Article 21 and right to religion under Article 25 of the Constitution of India. The Kerala HC held that the practice of compulsive endogamy in a church is violative of a citizen's basic and moral rights. A lower court order in Kottayam prohibited the Knanaya Catholic Church from outsing people marrying outside the diocese or Christian community to maintain 'pure lineage'. The Kerala HC kept the stay on halt for a month before opined that it was ousting its members to marry people outside the community.

The matter at hand pertains to the ruling against the practice of the Knanaya Catholic Church of the Archeparchy of Kottayam, expelling its members for marrying people outside the community. In recent years, the Church has expelled dozens of people from the community for entering wedlock without following endogamy (marrying from within the community). Reasonably so, the practice was challenged by a group of reformists from Knanaya Catholic Naveekarana Samithy, and people who have faced similar ostracism by the Church. The youth who remained unmarried due to this rule, along with those denied memberships for being born through surrogacy, contended against the rigidity and regressive approach of the Church.

On April 30, upon considering the plea, the Additional Sub Court of Kottayam passed an order restricting the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Archeparchy of Kottayam and Major Archiepiscopal Church from expelling members for marrying people from the Catholic Church for other Dioceses. Notably, the court had also directed the church to readmit all those members who have been expelled so far. However, in May, an appellate court stayed the lower court till July, and it extended the stay till the disposal of the appeal. Therefore, the petitioners moved to the High Court. 

Kottayam church cannot oust people for not marrying Christians: Kerala HC

A single bench comprising Justice VG Arun said that the appellate court continued its stay on the lower court without assigning valid reasons. "Even though the subsequent order was issued after hearing, that will not efface the fundamental flaw of the stay order having been granted without the court exercising its discretion judiciously," the Kerala HC stated in its September 7 order. Referring to the noted Hadiya case, a 2018 Supreme Court verdict, which upheld the marriage of Kerala natives Hadiya and Shafin Jahan. The Kerala High Court had annulled the marriage after her family falsely alleged a conspiracy behind the religious conversion and wedding. Hadiya was born to a Hindu family and converted to Islam, and married Shafin Jahan. 

The Kerala HC said that she had a right to make her choice, the High Court in the Knanaya church case, said that "there should be sufficient cause for the court to stay the decree of the lower court, which restricts a competent adult's right to marry a partner of his or her choice."

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