A Bangalore City Civil Court has granted a stay on the operations of the Karnataka Central Diocese (KCD) and all its institutions. The sweeping interim order, which virtually cripples the running of the diocese and its schools, hospitals, etc, came on a suit filed by two CSI members alleging maladministration and corruption. The key document used to engineer the stay is said to have been the recent showcause notice served by the Registrar of Companies, Chennai, on 24 current and previous directors of the CSI Trust Association (see CSI News & Views ….17 below) for various violations of the Companies Act. Former Moderator and ex-Bishop of KCD S. Vasanthakumar is one of the recipients of this notice as are two rivals of his who are currently part of the new dispensation that is administering the diocese, Treasurer J.M. Richard and former CSI General Secretary Moses Jayakumar.
The stay was served yesterday (14th March) on the Moderator’s Commissary Bishop J. S. Sadananda, who is holding charge of the KCD pending appointment of a new bishop, the process for which is due to begin with bishopric elections set for April 6, 2013. The order was hand delivered to Bishop Sadananda even as he was chairing a meeting regarding admissions to the CSI-run Bishop Cotton Girls School. The Bishop took umbrage to the petitioners being accompanied by two bishopric candidates Rev Manohar Chandra Prasad and Rev Mohan Raj asking them what business they had to come with the stay order.
The latest court stay is part of a long running saga of court orders that began with the announcement of elections to the KCD diocesan council in late 2011. Bishop Vasanthakumar’s supporters moved a Chennai court to get the elections in Bangalore stayed and prevent one individual in particular (current KCD Treasurer J.M. Richard) from participating in it as a candidate. When this stay was vacated by the Madras High Court citing lack of jurisdiction on the part of the Chennai lower court to entertain the matter, a second stay was brought from another court in Chennai and served on the very day the elections were to be held in August 2012. But this legal obstacle was also successfully overcome (see CSI Breaking News …5 of September 13, 2012) following another intervention by the Madras High Court and the elections resulted in Bishop Vasanthakumar’s detractors sweeping to power. Even after the polls, yet more unsuccessful legal attempts was made to try and prevent the new administration from taking charge in October 2012.
Earlier this month a so-called ‘CSI Laity Task Force’ mass-circulated a letter it had sent CSI Moderator G. Devakadasham demanding setting up of a Commission of Enquiry to investigate charges of maladministration and corruption against several office bearers of the new KCD administration. Interestingly most of the charges relate to alleged acts of omission and commission committed years ago by certain individuals in the present KCD administration when they were in office during Vasanthakumar’s 15-year-long tenure as Bishop which ended in May 2012. While Youth4CSi believes some of the allegations may not be without merit the fact that no part of the blame is laid at the doorstep of Bishop Vasantakumar himself raises questions as to the neutrality of the Task Force and the timing of its effort. This coming as it does on the eve of bishopric elections at which Bishop Vasanthakumar's nominees face an uphill task to make it to the panel of four from whom the Synod led by the Moderator will choose one as bishop.
The Task Force had in its letter warned that moderator that if it did not receive a reply from him within 15 days it would be “constrained to take appropriate action in accordance with the law to meet the ends of Justice.” The fact that Stanly Maben, the Secretary of the Task Force, accompanied those who served the stay order on the Moderator’s Commissary, shows the threat to move the court has already been activated. Though the next date of hearing is fixed for early next month, diocesan sources say the court may be requested to bring forward the hearing of the matter. For now, the KCD bishop elections set for April 6 seem unlikely to go ahead as scheduled.
Pic: Former Moderator & KCD Bishop S. Vasanthakumar may be retired and down but he's far from out
A Bangalore City Civil Court has granted a stay on the operations of the Karnataka Central Diocese (KCD) and all its institutions. The sweeping interim order, which virtually cripples the running of the diocese and its schools, hospitals, etc, came on a suit filed by two CSI members alleging maladministration and corruption. The key document used to engineer the stay is said to have been the recent showcause notice served by the Registrar of Companies, Chennai, on 24 current and previous directors of the CSI Trust Association (see CSI News & Views ….17 below) for various violations of the Companies Act. Former Moderator and ex-Bishop of KCD S. Vasanthakumar is one of the recipients of this notice as are two rivals of his who are currently part of the new dispensation that is administering the diocese, Treasurer J.M. Richard and former CSI General Secretary Moses Jayakumar.
The stay was served yesterday (14th March) on the Moderator’s Commissary Bishop J. S. Sadananda, who is holding charge of the KCD pending appointment of a new bishop, the process for which is due to begin with bishopric elections set for April 6, 2013. The order was hand delivered to Bishop Sadananda even as he was chairing a meeting regarding admissions to the CSI-run Bishop Cotton Girls School. The Bishop took umbrage to the petitioners being accompanied by two bishopric candidates Rev Manohar Chandra Prasad and Rev Mohan Raj asking them what business they had to come with the stay order.
The latest court stay is part of a long running saga of court orders that began with the announcement of elections to the KCD diocesan council in late 2011. Bishop Vasanthakumar’s supporters moved a Chennai court to get the elections in Bangalore stayed and prevent one individual in particular (current KCD Treasurer J.M. Richard) from participating in it as a candidate. When this stay was vacated by the Madras High Court citing lack of jurisdiction on the part of the Chennai lower court to entertain the matter, a second stay was brought from another court in Chennai and served on the very day the elections were to be held in August 2012. But this legal obstacle was also successfully overcome (see CSI Breaking News …5 of September 13, 2012) following another intervention by the Madras High Court and the elections resulted in Bishop Vasanthakumar’s detractors sweeping to power. Even after the polls, yet more unsuccessful legal attempts was made to try and prevent the new administration from taking charge in October 2012.
Earlier this month a so-called ‘CSI Laity Task Force’ mass-circulated a letter it had sent CSI Moderator G. Devakadasham demanding setting up of a Commission of Enquiry to investigate charges of maladministration and corruption against several office bearers of the new KCD administration. Interestingly most of the charges relate to alleged acts of omission and commission committed years ago by certain individuals in the present KCD administration when they were in office during Vasanthakumar’s 15-year-long tenure as Bishop which ended in May 2012. While Youth4CSi believes some of the allegations may not be without merit the fact that no part of the blame is laid at the doorstep of Bishop Vasantakumar himself raises questions as to the neutrality of the Task Force and the timing of its effort. This coming as it does on the eve of bishopric elections at which Bishop Vasanthakumar's nominees face an uphill task to make it to the panel of four from whom the Synod led by the Moderator will choose one as bishop.
The Task Force had in its letter warned that moderator that if it did not receive a reply from him within 15 days it would be “constrained to take appropriate action in accordance with the law to meet the ends of Justice.” The fact that Stanly Maben, the Secretary of the Task Force, accompanied those who served the stay order on the Moderator’s Commissary, shows the threat to move the court has already been activated. Though the next date of hearing is fixed for early next month, diocesan sources say the court may be requested to bring forward the hearing of the matter. For now, the KCD bishop elections set for April 6 seem unlikely to go ahead as scheduled.
Pic: Former Moderator & KCD Bishop S. Vasanthakumar may be retired and down but he's far from out
courtesy=youth 4 csi
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