 The majority Orthodox Jacobite Church represented by Mar Dionysius accused that the consecration of Thomas Mar Athanasius was invalid as it had been done without the permission of the syriac patriarch, held to be the supreme head of the Syrian Church in Malabar.To establish the foothold by the two factions a litigation, that lasted for 10 years took place, regarding the title to the possession of the ‘Syrian Seminary’ and allied properties of the Church.The plea of Thomas Mar Athanasius was that the Syrian Church in Malabar was an independent Church though having friendly relations with the Jacobite Patriarch and that therefore, there was nothing wrong in his having been consecrated by his predecessor without any reference to the Patriarch.