Rajasthan court restores control of All Saint Church to CNI

Jaipur, Nov. 15, 2004 – The control of All Saints Church, one of the oldest churches in Rajasthan has been restored to the Church of North India by a district court of Rajasthan recently thereby bringing a long controversy over its rightful ownership to an end.

The fate of the century old church, located in an area of 17 bighas (nearly 5.7 acres) of land donated by the erstwhile rulers of Jaipur in the heart of the Pink City, was uncertain for long and its management body was facing a crisis after a group of parishioners, after registering themselves as a society, had staked claim over its management from the Diocese of Rajasthan.

Acting on separate applications for temporary injunctions filed by the CNI Diocese of Rajasthan and the other party, the All Saints Church Society, the Additional District Judge, Mithilesh Kumar Sharma, has upheld the right of Collins Theodore, the CNI Bishop of the area, to appoint "padres" and other spiritual functionaries for the church services.

In their petition, the Diocese of Rajasthan, Z.R.Massey, the presbyter in charge of the All Saints Church, and R.K.Sen had brought to the notice of the court that members of a particular family after registering themselves as a society were trying to control the management of the church for their own selfish ends.

The petitioners had also charged the Society and its appointee Joel Joseph with misusing the premises, which had a school also, by running a computer centre.