Timeline of dispute:
- The Christian population of Kerala comprises Catholic, Jacobite Syrian, Orthodox Syrian, Mar Thoma, Church of South India, Dalit Christians and Pentecostal Churches/groups.
- The Malankara Church is a prominent non-Catholic Christian community which is believed to be established in AD 52 by St. Thomas.
- The Malankara Church first split in 1912, into the Jacobite and Orthodox Syrian groups. The two Churches reunified in 1959, but the truce lasted only until 1972-73. Since then, the two factions have been engaged in battle over ownership of churches and their wealth.
Supreme Court ruling of July 2017:
- The Supreme Court had upheld the 1934 constitution of the Malankara church.
- It ordered that the ownership of St Mary’s Church at Piravom in Ernakulam district, which is currently held by the Jacobite Church, should be handed over to Orthodox Church, and so should the ownership of 1,064 other churches in dispute.
