 Ignatius Abdul Masih II was the controversially deposed Patriarch of Antioch and until the 1950s, some claimed the relocation of the Catholicate to India was without authority from the Universal Syriac Orthodox Synod, thus causing century-long disputes in the Malankara Church.However, this claim was dismissed by the Supreme Court of India in 1958, which accepted the validity and authority of the Catholicos of the East as the Primate of Malankara Orthodox Church.Initially, Mar Ivanios refused to take up the position due to his ill health and old age, but later accepted when pressed to do so.