The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to seek reports from States, including UP, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand, on attacks on Christian institutions, as alleged in a PIL. Earlier, the MHA affidavit said the PIL is based on wrong reports as many charges were not correct.
A bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli said an attack on individuals does not mean it is an attack on the community but it needs to verify the claims of any such incident if it is made in the public interest litigation (PIL).
The PIL was filed by Christian priests. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said that on verification it has been found the majority of the alleged cases mentioned in the PIL are false and based on “self-serving articles” published on a web portal.
He said that the court should not pass an order in such a PIL, otherwise it will open Pandora’s box. The bench gave two months to the MHA to seek reports from the States. It said that the court is only concerned that its earlier verdicts on the appointment of nodal officers for reporting and monitoring of such incidents are complied with by the States.
The court’s 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 claiming violence against the members of the Christian community in the country. The petitioners were represented by senior advocate Colin Gonsalves