India News | SC Seeks Response of Kerala on Plea of Cardinal Against Criminal Cases

New Delhi, Apr 1 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Friday sought responses from the Kerala government and a complainant on a plea of Cardinal Mar George Alencherry seeking quashing of six criminal cases against him in the state.

A bench of justices Dinesh Maheshwari and Aniruddha Bose took note of the submissions of senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for the Archbishop, that several separate criminal cases have been lodged against his client for one alleged offence which is impermissible in law.

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The bench posted the plea after two weeks and asked the state and Joshy Varghese, who had filed complaints, to respond to the plea.

Alencherry, in his appeal drafted by lawyer Gyanant Kumar Singh, said, “multiple proceedings for the same allegations would only amount to prolonging the harassment of the Petitioner.”

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The plea has been filed against an order of the Kerala High Court which refused to stay the private criminal complaints against the Archbishop.

The high court had dismissed all the six petitions of the Archbishop challenging orders of Judicial Magistrate of First Class, Kakkanad taking cognizance of complaints filed by Joshy Varghese.

The plea has also sought a stay on the investigation ordered by the high court to probe “whether the church had executed a settlement deed in 2007 with respect to a government land or puramboke land...“.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)