Seek report on attacks on Christians, Supreme Court tells MHA

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, September 1

The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to seek reports from various states, including Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand on alleged attacks on Christian institutions in India.

Noting that an attack on individuals didn’t mean it is an attack on the community, a Bench led by Justice DY Chandrachud, however, said it needed to verify any such claims made in the PIL and gave two months to the MHA to seek reports from states.

On July 28, the Bench had expressed strong displeasure over news reports that said it was delaying hearing of a petition alleging increasing attacks on Christian institutions and priests in India. “Give us a break… There is a limit to targeting judges,” it had said.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said on verification, it was found the majority of the alleged cases mentioned in the PIL were false and based on “self-serving articles” published on a web portal.

The court should not pass an order in such a PIL, otherwise it would open Pandora’s Box, Mehta said. It said the court was only concerned that its earlier verdicts on the appointment of nodal officers for reporting and monitoring of such incidents were complied with by the states.

The order came on a PIL filed by Rev Dr Peter Machado of National Solidarity Forum, Rev Vijayesh Lal of Evangelical Fellowship of India and others alleging violence against the Christian community in India.

Terming the petition alleging the persecution of Christians as based on “falsehood” and “self-serving documents”, the Centre had on August 16 told the top court that such “deceptive petitions” were creating unrest in the country.

In an affidavit filed in response to a PIL, the MHA alleged they were perhaps seeking to get assistance from outside to meddle with the internal affairs of India. “…there appears to be some hidden oblique agenda in filing such deceptive petitions, creating unrest throughout the country and perhaps for getting assistance from outside the country to meddle with internal affairs of our nation,” the MHA said, accusing the petitioners of resorting to “falsehood” and “self-serving documents”. It said the reports cited to show Christian persecution were either “false” or “wrongfully projected”.

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