The Delhi High Court today said that attacks on any kind of religious structures shake the human conscience of all and such practices should be stopped.
"This is something which shakes the human conscience and agitate all of us. There should not be any attack of any kind on any religious places," Justice Siddharth Mridul said. The court's oral observation was made during hearing of a plea seeking protection of religious rights of Christians and a "court-monitored SIT probe" into the recent attacks on the churches in the national capital.
The court, however, turned down the petitioner Reegan S Bell's request for SIT probe, saying the same cannot be ordered by this bench and has to be referred to another bench which adjudicates on public interest litigation. "The reliefs sought in this petition are not personal to him. This has to be heard by the division bench. I wish I could have appointed the SIT but I cannot do that.
"list this matter for direction before the division bench headed by the Chief Justice. Chief Justice (G Rohini) should look into the matter and issue some direction," the court said, adding that it is an "important matter". The matter has been fixed before the division bench on April 29. The petitioner, an advocate who is a Christian, prayed that the SIT should comprise members of the minority community or the National Minority Commission.
He has also sought a status report from the Centre, Delhi government and city police on the action taken by them regarding the attacks and efforts made by them to secure these places against such incidents in future. The central government's standing counsel Anil Soni, appearing for the Home Ministry, opposed the plea, saying the petitioner's plea was a "communal petition".
Advocate Soni also said "why should this (petition) be concerned with churches only, all the places of worship should be protected irrespective of the religion. There are attacks on temples, gurdwaras and mosques too. No one wants to say about that. The petitioner should be concerned with all religions. "At least 200 temples were vandalised, 30 gurdwaras and 14 mosques were vandalised along with six churches in the national capital last year. We can't give preference to one religion. We are for all the religious places."
Agreeing to the central government counsel's submissions, the high court was of the view that "whether it's church, temple, gurdwara, mosque, we have to make sure all the religious places are equally saved." "For the past 1000 years, we lived in harmony with each other. We do not not want such attacks. If we wish to survive as a country, we need to protect the religions."
The court further said "there are some people who are involved in this kinds of attacks and disturbs the silence of the moment. If they continue to do so, then action is the need of the hour." Senior advocate Adish C Aggarwala, appearing for Bell, said that since December, five churches in Delhi have been vandalised but till date no arrests have been made except in one and the cases have not been solved yet.
He further said that the government has failed to prevent such attacks. The plea also sought directions to the authorities to compensate the places of worship that have been attacked and to ensure they are "restored to their original shape and beauty". The petition said that though the police ismissed the attacks as stray and totally unconnected incidents, the Delhi Archdiocese has alleged that they were orchestrated.