New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday rejected a petition seeking a directive to the union government to introduce church act at national level.

A bench of justices Rohinton Nariman and S. Ravindra Bhat rejected the petition and stated that the SC could not direct the union government to introduce such a law.

The writ petition was submitted by Gudallur M. J. Cherian and three others. The SC bench stated that church act was present in various states and that there was no need for such a law in the national level.

In Kerala, the church act was formed in 2009 by justice V. R. Krishna Iyer, the then chairman of the state administrative reforms commission. The church act was aimed at a system where trilateral trusts of the church would be controlled by those elected by members of the church through meetings.

However, Kerala Catholic Bishops' Council (KCBC) was against the church act.

Though there is church act in various states in the country, Kerala does not have such an act, the petitioners pointed out. When asked to introduce such a law in the Kerala, the state government said it was the union government’s responsibility. It was in this situation that the petition was filed, the petitioners said.