New Delhi, Sep 1 : The Supreme Court on Thursday said it could not form an opinion on the veracity of claims in the case of a petition filed before it over the attacks against Christians in the country.The court also requested the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to request the verification of claims from Bihar, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.The apex court gave two months to conduct the whole process of gathering information , that includes the registration of FIRs and arrests, the information about the status of investigation, as well as charge sheets that were filed.
A bench of Justices D.Y.Chandrachud and Hima Kohli said they “can’t make an informed decision on the truthfulness of claims in the plea (in the plea) provided to us.” .”.It also said that the Chief Secretaries of all eight states must ensure that all the necessary information is sent to the MHA and the outcome of verification is to be submitted in the highest court.The court further stated that it is preferential to confirm the allegations included in the plea.
Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, representing the petitioners, claimed that 700 prayer gatherings of Christians were shut down and violent attacks were employed against them.He stated that whenever instances of violence were reported to the police, they demanded the public to stop attending prayer gatherings and gave horrifying details of numerous instances of brutality against Christians.
He told the court that the petitioner had listed the incidents in which Christians were slain.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre said that the MHA after a thorough investigation found that a lot of the incidents mentioned in the plea as communal attacks were either exaggerated or false.
In the hearing the bench noted there are crimes, and there are crimes that are communal, and “we must differentiate and we are asking the state to take action”.
Mehta opposed the petition, saying that “notice that states conduct an roving inquiries.
These could have implications” and that petitioner’s claims are based on self-serving information which their own staff gather information on the incident that is claimed to have occurred.
The bench noted that certain victims might not have the sufficient resources to go down the legal way, and noted that the court isn’t eager to undertake a roaming investigation however it could choose to select certain states.
Mehta stated that as per the petitioner some incidents were recorded by West Bengal and it was the most peaceful.The bench said it could ask the state governments to inform it of the actions taken in relation to instances of violent acts towards the Christian community.
It also requested Gonsalves to communicate the data with authorities concerned.
Prior to that in the past, earlier, the Central government had informed the Supreme Court there is no justification in the petition alleging a rise in violence against Christians in the country.
It claimed that such deceitful petitions could cause unrest throughout the country, could be used seeking aid from outside the country to interfere with the internal issues of the country.
The MHA, in a written response, stated: “It is submitted that there may be a secret motive in the filing of such fraudulent petitions, causing unrest across the country and possibly getting help from abroad to interfere with the internal issues of the nation.”
The petitioner has turned to self-serving and false documents.It also quoted press reports, in which Christian persecution is untrue or misrepresented.
The MHA’s response was based on an appeal claiming a rising amount of assaults on Christian churches and priests across the nation and requesting the application of its policies to stop hate crimes.
The petitioners Rev.Peter Machado and others sought the implementation of the guidelines given by the apex courts in the year 2018 Tehseen Poonawala judgement.
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