Catholic and Protestant dioceses in Mumbai, India’s commercial capital, have got themselves entangled in two separate court cases over prime multi-million-dollar properties, which activists say show the need for a new national law to manage Church properties.
A court in Mumbai initiated legal proceedings against seven people — five Catholics and two others — on June 25 after indicting them for forging documents to grab an expensive plot of land belonging to the Bombay archdiocese.
Court documents show that all seven were indicted for fraud and forging land documents in November 2014 to acquire 2,538 square meters of land illegally.
Melwyn Fernandes, a Catholic activist, said the land in the upmarket Bandra West area, worth over US$71 million, was donated to the archdiocese.
“The case details show a lack of awareness among Church people. Catholics in the archdiocese do not know what is happening to their common property. There are no legal measures to effectively use these properties for the common good,” Fernandes said.
In the other case, the Maharashtra state High Court in Mumbai on June 20 ordered the Church of North India’s Bombay diocese to demolish all illegal structures on 3,500 square meters of land that the government leased to the Protestant Church in 1953 for 99 years.
The court order followed complaints that Church authorities violated lease conditions and used the property for their commercial gain by building illegal structures and renting them out to third parties.
The land in Fort Mumbai, a prime location, is estimated to be worth 3 billion Indian rupees (about US$37 million) and originally belonged to the federal government’s Defense Ministry.
The lease conditions prohibited the Church from using it for any purpose other than Christian religious use.
Advocate Cyril Dara, who complained about the CNI Church’s lease violation, said, “Land in Mumbai... is expensive and not easily available. The Church is fortunate to have such a property in a prime location like Fort Mumbai."
Dara said misuse of Church properties, including clandestine sales, in connivance with land sharks is rampant among both Catholic and Protestant dioceses that own landed property in all big cities.
Since not many people know a particular plot of land is owned by a diocese, the hierarchy's misuse comes to light only when someone stumbles across the documents, he said.
That could be decades after the bishops and others responsible are dead and gone, he added.
“That is why we have been campaigning for a national law to manage Church properties,” said Dara, secretary of the interdenominational Christian Reform United People Association, which launched an online petition last November demanding such a law.
Fernandez agreed, saying the latest land case in his Mumbai archdiocese indicates “how causally the hierarchy deals with attempts to grab prime properties that equally belong to all Catholics in the archdiocese.”
For example, he said he approached Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Mumbai when he learned that the seven people had forged signatures to fabricate a will in 2014. The property was probated on Nov. 16, 2017, by misleading the court with fake documents.
The cardinal “casually asked me to approach the archdiocesan lawyer. The lawyer asked me to remain silent,” Fernandes claimed.
However, Fernandes said he complained to the police. When the police refused to register a criminal case of forgery and fraud, he approached the court.
“There is no public inventory of the land assets of the Church. Thousands of people, including Catholics, are homeless or live in city shanties in inhuman conditions. But a few are selling the property of these poor people to live in luxury,” he said.
Father Nigel Barrett, spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Bombay, denied the allegation. “The land in question is in our possession,” he told UCA News, adding, “Our security personnel are guarding it.”
The priest said the archdiocese has plans for the land but refused to disclose them.
Barrett also declined to say why the archdiocese did not join the court litigation.
Fernandes said it is high time Christians in India stood firm in asserting their rights. “Laws are needed when self-regulation and morality fail. The priority "is to have a law to manage the wealth of all Christian Churches.”
