31 Acres Sold at a Fraction of Their Value: An Indian Court Orders a Federal Probe of a Church Land Deal

• The Madras High Court ordered a federal CBI investigation
• 31.10 acres valued at over 220 million rupees were allegedly sold for 12 million
• Nine million rupees were allegedly taken in cash
• The land was granted in 1912 for an industrial home for women

A church land sale in southern India has become the subject of a federal criminal investigation, Anglican Ink reported in November 2024.

On November 22, the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court ordered the Central Bureau of Investigation to look into claims involving the Church of South India’s Madurai-Ramnad diocese. A diocese member, D Devasahayam, filed a public interest petition alleging that the Church of South India Trust Association (CSITA) and diocesan officials sold 31.10 acres valued at more than 220 million rupees for just 12 million rupees, taking 9 million of it in cash in breach of banking rules.

The court was blunt. “There were fraudulent transactions of astronomical level,” it said, and “Church properties are swindled against the tenets of the Bible.”

The land has a long church history. In 1912 the British colonial government granted it to the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions for an industrial home for women. The mission ran it until 1973, when it was transferred to CSITA. Another bench of the same court had earlier suggested placing church properties under state control, a move that alarmed church leaders. A Catholic official told UCA News: “Most Catholic Church properties are legally purchased.”

Land given to missions for social purposes is often worth far more today than when it was granted, and that gap creates temptation. Without transparent valuation, open sale processes and oversight by members, a church’s most valuable assets can be sold cheaply or lost.

Jamaica’s churches also hold land granted or bought generations ago for schools, homes and missions. The Indian case is a warning to keep proper records of how land was acquired and what it was given for, to get independent valuations before any sale, and to report sales openly to members, so that no one can later claim the church’s property was swindled away.

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