PANAJI
The Bombay High Court at Goa set aside an order passed by the Goa Information Commission back in 2014, that ruled that the office of the Archbishop Patriarch was a public authority under the Right to Information (RTI) Act 2005.
In a judgement delivered on Thursday, the High Court single bench of Justice M S Sonak ruled that the Archbishop at the patriarchal tribunal that he heads dealing with the annulment of marriages did not constitute a public authority since the Ecclesiastical Courts and Tribunals constituted under the Canon Law couldn’t be regarded as authorities or bodies established or constituted by a law made by the Parliament of India or Goa State Legislature.
“Admittedly, the Patriarchal Tribunal is neither established nor constituted under Decree No.35461 (Law of Canonical Marriage) or the Goa, Daman and Diu (Administration) Act, 1962. Merely because Article 19 of the Decree No.35461 gives recognition to orders of annulment made by the Ecclesiastical Courts and Tribunals like the Patriarchal Tribunal, it cannot be concluded that Decree No.35461 establishes or constitutes the Ecclesiastical Courts and Tribunals like the Patriarchal Tribunal,” the High Court ruled.
“The act of giving recognition to the decisions and judgments of the Ecclesiastical Courts and Tribunals like the Patriarchal Tribunal is not the same thing as establishing or constituting the Ecclesiastical Courts or Tribunals like the Patriarchal Tribunal,” the High Court also said.
“Similarly, the Canon Law or the Canonical Law cannot be regarded as the law made by the Parliament of India or the law made by the State Legislature. Merely because some of the decisions and judgments of the Ecclesiastical Courts and Tribunals constituted under the Canon Law may have acquired limited recognition under the State Law or the Parliamentary Law, that by itself would not be sufficient to hold that such Ecclesiastical Courts or Tribunals like the Patriarchal Tribunal are authorities or bodies established or constituted by a law made by the Parliament or the State Legislature,” the High Court said.
