Administrators for CSI, trust appointed

The Madras High Court on Friday appointed two of its retired judges as the Committee of Administrators to administer the Church of South India (CSI) and the CSI Trust Association until the conduct of fresh elections for the Diocesan Councils and the Synod.

A Division Bench of Justices R. Subramanian and R. Sakthivel appointed former judges R. Balasubramanian and V. Bharathidasan as administrators and said they should take charge of the administration with immediate effect.

The Bench gave liberty to the administrators to appoint any retired district judge/judges to assist them in the process of administering the two institutions and conducting elections first to the Diocesan Councils and then to the Synod from among those nominated by the councils.

The CSI Synod must pay an initial remuneration of ₹10 lakh each to the two retired High Court judges appointed to the Committee of Administrators and an initial remuneration of ₹3 lakh each to the retired district judges.

The orders were passed while allowing a batch of original side appeals filed in 2023 against a single judge’s order. Authoring the order for the Bench, Justice Subramanian said, the CSI was an unregistered body of persons which was in charge of the functions of protestant churches in south India and Sri Lanka.

The CSI came into existence on September 27, 1947, and was governed by a set of rules named the Constitution of CSI.

Disputes often arise regarding the management and conduct of elections for the posts of various officebearers in CSI as well as CSI Trust Association, which was a company registered under the Companies Act, 1956. While CSI looks after the ecclesiastical functions, the CSI Trust Association takes care of the administration of the properties of the church.