Plea Alleging Attacks Against Christians | Supreme Court Asks MHA To Give Details Of States' Compliance With Guidelines To Prevent Mob Violence

In a plea seeking directions to stop alleged attacks against Christian priests and Christian institutions across the country, Supreme Court has directed the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to collate a report on States' compliance with the directions issued in the judgment of Tehseen Poonawalla v. Union of India against mob violence. The matter was heard by a bench comprising CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha, and Justice JB Pardiwala.

In the last hearing, the court had directed the State of Jharkhand to file a verification report regarding compliance with the Tehseen Poonawalla judgement. Today, Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati informed the court that the State of Jharkhand had submitted requisite data as per the orders of the court but the State of Chattisgarh was yet to file its report. Advocate Sumeer Sodhi, standing counsel for the State of Chhattisgarh submitted that Chattisgarh had already complied with the directions and submitted its report. The bench directed for a copy of the report to be furnished to ASG Bhati during the course of week.

ASG Bhati stated that in any event, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs was now going to proceed to prepare its report in terms of the directions of the court on or before the next date of listing. 

Advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the petitioner, said that the court that attacks against the Christian community had been exponentially increasing. He said–

"When we filed this case, we expected that giving all these examples would be a deterrent. Now there is some enquiry going on. The latest one ended in mid-2022. Post 2022, there has been an exponential rise in attacks against Christians everywhere. In Chhattisgarh, PUCL came out with a book on 2022-23 pointing out some 600 attacks which is the highest ever. The pattern of the attack is that you attack the community, you arrest the priest, you stop the prayer meetings, and you register an FIR against Christians. So the Christians are being attacked in the FIR is against the Christians. Again and again and again they are struggling to get out on bail."

He then argued that as per the order of the court in Tehseen Poonawalla, nodal officers were responsible to act as a buffer between the assailants and the community and duly register FIRs. However, nodal officers had not been registering any FIRs. He said–

"It is our experience that the nodal officers are notified but the nodal officers are registering not a single FIR. Hate speech is exploding now. The television is full of it, newspapers are full of it, digital media is full of it, rallies are taking place in Chhattisgarh, UP but the nodal officers register not a single FIR. So what are your lordships intended to do was to prepare a system where if a vulnerable community can't come forward or are scared to come forward, the nodal officer would do the job on record the hate speech. That is not happening anywhere in the country."

To this submission, ASG Bhati responded–

"It is easy to make sweeping statements but the data by the states, we wish to show to your lordships in what manner it is to be compiled in two weeks."

Accordingly, the bench orally remarked that it would allow the Union to come back after two weeks and provide the court with a collation of data from the Ministry of Home Affairs, post which the court would will go to each State. CJI DY Chandrachud orally remarked–

"Let us have the response by the Ministry. If there are any developments which take place in the meantime we will see how they are to be dealt with. Let us at least have the affidavit because we will have something in terms of response from Ministry of Home Affairs." 

The matter is now listed for 14th April 2023. 

Background

Archbishop Of Bangalore Diocese Dr. Peter Machado along with the National Solidarity Forum, the Evangelical Fellowship of India are the petitioners in the matter. According to the petition, the present PIL has been filed against the "sinister phenomena of violence" and "targeted hate speech" against the Christian community of the country by vigilante groups and members of right-wing organisations. It submits that such violence has been rising owing to the failure of the State machinery to protect its own citizens.

The petition argues that there is failure by the Central and State Governments and other State machineries in taking immediate and necessary actions against groups that have caused widespread violence and hate speech against the Christian community including attacks at their places of worship and other institutions run by them.

The Union Government has filed a counter-affidavit stating that the claim of "Christian persecution" in India is false and alleged that the petitioners have relied upon certain biased and one-sided reports.. The Union further stated that the petitioners have projected certain cases arising out of personal disputes as communal attacks.

Case Title: Most Rev. Dr. Peter Machado And Ors. v. UoI And Ors. WP(Crl) No. 137/2022