Plea Alleging Attacks Against Christians : Supreme Court Seeks Reports From Six States

In a plea seeking directions to stop alleged attacks against Christian priests and Christian institutions across the country, the Supreme Court, directed Chief Secretaries of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh to share the information regarding steps taken by their respective law enforcement agencies with respect to the violence alleged in the plea within a period of three weeks.

The PIL has been filed by Archbishop Of Bangalore Diocese Dr. Peter Machado along with the National Solidarity Forum, the Evangelical Fellowship of India.

Earlier, the court had directed the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to obtain verification reports from 8 states, namely, Bihar, Haryana, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh on the steps taken. The Apex Court was of the view that the collated reports would aid it in forming opinion on States' compliance with the directions issued in the judgment of Tehseen Poonawalla v. Union of India. However, Ms Aishwarya Bhati, Additional Solicitor General submitted that while the State of Haryana had provided requisite details in pursuance of the order, the other States, had not supplied the information.

Ms Garima Prashad, Additional Advocate General for the State of Uttar Pradesh stated that UP had already furnished the information. The bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha, and Justice JB Pardiwala noted–

"This discrepancy shall be duly reconciled within a period of one week and the State of Uttar Pradesh shall furnish another copy of all the information as required to be furnished in terms of the order dated 1 September 2022."

The petition is now listed for 13 March 2023.

The 8 states were asked to provide information on the following aspects in their verification reports -

1. Registration of FIRs

2. Status of investigation

3. Arrests made

4. Chargesheets filed

Background

Archbishop Of Bangalore Diocese Dr. Peter Machado along with the National Solidarity Forum, the Evangelical Fellowship of India are the petitioners in the mattter. 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 Peter v UOI & Ors. W.P.(Crl.) No. 137/2022

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