The Catholicos of the East sits in India.
The Catholicate was re-established at Niranam in 1912 and the church has governed itself under its own constitution since 1934. The Jacobite Syrian Christian Church contests exactly this: it holds that the Patriarch of Antioch retains authority over the Malankara church, and Indian courts have been deciding between the two positions since the nineteenth century.
The Catholicate was established at Niranam on 15 September 1912 by Patriarch Abdul Messiah, who had himself been deposed by the Ottoman authorities — which the opposing party has argued for a century made the act invalid. The Malankara Association adopted a constitution in 1934 asserting autocephaly. The Supreme Court of India has ruled on the dispute in 1958, 1995, 2017, 2018 and 2019, consistently holding that Malankara parishes are governed by the 1934 constitution; the 2017 judgment covered more than 1,100 parishes. In December 2024 the Court found members of the Jacobite side in contempt for not complying and ordered six churches handed over. No court order has ended the dispute on the ground.
The same ground, other faiths
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