The Kerala government on Wednesday decided to promulgate an ordinance allowing the burial rituals of Jacobite parishioners at their family cemeteries that are now under the control of the Orthodox faction of the Malankara church.

The government decided on the ordinance route after efforts to resolve the issue through discussions failed, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan told reporters.

The two factions are locked in a stalemate over burial rituals — part of a long feud over the possession of church properties — which recently delayed the funeral of a 91-year-old woman in Alappuzha by more than a month.

A 2017 Supreme Court verdict had ordered more than 1,000 churches, held by the Jacobites, to be handed over to the Orthodox faction. The Orthodox faction has been saying that Jacobite burials can be

allowed in cemeteries under its control only if the last rites are performed by Orthodox priests.

Malankara Orthodox Church secretary Biju Oommen said: “If the essence of the ordinance is against the spirit of the Supreme Court judgment, we will challenge it legally.”

Senior Jacobite priest and church spokesperson Kuriakose Mor Theophilose said in Kochi the faction was grateful to the government for its “brave decision” to allow its faithful a “dignified burial”.

“We had made all efforts to resolve the issue,” Vijayan said. “We tried to hold discussions but one section refused to come for talks.”

Relatives of the dead have the right to have the funeral rites conducted by a priest of their choice outside the church, and then bring the body back to the place of worship for a burial, Vijayan said. Everyone has the right to be cremated in their family cemetery under the ordinance, he said.