NEW DELHI: Cardinal Mar George Alencherry has suffered a setback as his plea to stay the case in Kakkanad First Class Magistrate court and also to stay the High Court order for an inquiry into whether the government land was involved in the Syro Malabar Church's land deal, was rejected by the Supreme Court.

Justice Dinesh Maheshwari said that everything happened because of the Cardinal and therefore the court refused to stay the investigation at this stage. Opposition parties, including the state government, have been asked to respond within two weeks to the High Court order.

Siddharth Luthara, a senior lawyer who appeared for Alencherry, said the cardinal was 70 years old and he would be taken into police custody if the investigation was not stopped. Supreme court has given assurance to consider the petitions filed by the Bathery diocese of the Syro-Malankara Church and the Thamarassery diocese of the Syro-Malabar Church against the High Court ruling that the bishops have no power to sell the land and property of the churches along with Alencherry's petition.

Lawyers Jayant Muthuraj and P.S. Sudhir appeared for petitioner Joshi Varghese. Rakend Basant appeared for Shine Varghese, who had applied to join as a party in the case.