The Kerala High Court has asked Cardinal George Alencherry, head of the Catholic Church in the southern Indian state, to appear before a court in connection with cases related to a land sale.
The top court in Kerala on November 9 dismissed the cardinal’s plea seeking exemption from personal appearance before the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, Kakkanad, a suburb of Kochi.
The prelate is facing seven criminal cases in connection with the sale of land belonging to the Archdiocese of Ernakulam-Angamaly Archdiocese a few years ago.
The cardinal is accused of selling prime land belonging to the archdiocese without consulting canonical bodies and other concerned authorities and incurring a loss close to a billion rupees.
The cardinal had denied the allegations and reportedly admitted having certain failures in overseeing the land deals and made no gains from them.
Cardinal Alencherry in his plea said that he “is a senior citizen aged 77 years and head of the Syro Malabar Church spread over whole world, having a membership of 55 lakhs (5.5 million).”
The prelate further said he is “bestowed with the duty of performing religious ceremonies, rituals, including ordination of bishops, priests, consecration of churches.”
Citing his busy schedule, the cardinal said he had to render supervisory administrative functions over 35 dioceses out of which four are out of India and 18 are outside Kerala.
The cardinal added that he is also the head of the Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council and he has to attend meetings as well as perform duties as its president and also the member of College of Cardinals and also has to attend meetings in Rome.
Against such a background, the prelate urged the court grant him exemption from appearance before the court and allow his counsel to deal with the cases in his place.
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