KOCHI:

issued is a civil dispute that could develop into a state-level law and order issue whereas the problems at Sabarimala were created by some communal organizations to carve out their political space in Kerala, state government has informed the

.

Government was responding to the query by a division bench comprising justices PR

and

about alleged double standards in implementing Supreme Court judgments with regard to Piravom church and Sabarimala. In an interim order, the bench had pointed out that the government claims to be trying for an amicable settlement in the church dispute whereas it deployed police in large numbers for implementing the apex court’s verdict in another case (Sabarimala).

An affidavit filed by home department in response to the court’s query stated, “….the case regarding the Church, unlike any other issue now dominating the public sphere in the State, is an interse civil dispute between two factions of Malankara Syrian Community as regards administration of the temporal affairs of the Church; that the settlement of the issue require one faction to give way to the other as regards the temporal administration of the Church, which authority of administration they have been holding for long; that the same is bound to whip up passions likely to percolate as law and order problem to other areas in the State wherein such factions are prevalent; and the State and the Government, in the interests of the welfare of the Society as a whole, was bound to act in a responsible manner by taking recourse to all possible options to solve the issue amicably and amiably without collateral damage or unwarranted loss of human life and property; that the State has only done that; and that in the other issue dominating the public sphere in the State, local restrictions in terms of the provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure and heavy police deployment were necessitated only because communal organisations and anti social elements, just for serving their cause of carving out a political space in the State, created all sorts of law and order issues on a large scale by attacking devotees and media personnel including women, by causing damage to private as well as public vehicles and by indulging in concerted attempts to whip up communal passions and thereby hold the entire State at ransom.”

Further, government said in the affidavit that it has no vested interests and that its only intention is to maintain law and order in the society and to create an atmosphere of utmost peace and

. Government and police is aware of its constitutional obligation to implement Supreme Court’s orders and the authorities should be given operational freedom and sufficient time to implement the apex court’s orders without collateral damage or unwarranted loss of human life, government submitted.