Ranchi, July 23 -- The Jharkhand High Court on Thursday dismissed two Letters Patent Appeals in a 55-year-old dispute relating to the Santal Mission of Northern Churches (SMNC), upholding a 1992 judgment that restored the validity of a 1968 instrument appointing a new trustee body.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice M.S. Sonak and Justice Rajesh Shankar found no merit in LPA Nos. 79 and 80 of 1992, which arose out of two title suits instituted in 1971 over the management and properties of the missionary trust.
The Bench held that the challenge to the 1968 instrument was barred by limitation and that the Trust Association of the Northern Evangelical Lutheran Church (NELC) was a necessary party to the suit but had not been impleaded....