Attack on Christians: Supreme Court asks MHA to verify reports

NEW DELHI:  The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Ministry of Home Affairs to seek verification reports from the states of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana with regards to the steps that have been taken by the state’s law enforcement agencies in respect of alleged attacks against Christian community. 

The bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli asked the Chief Secretary of eight states to furnish information to the MHA on aspects such as registration of FIR, status of investigation, arrest made and chargesheets filed. 

The apex court has granted two months time for the purpose of carrying out the exercise of verification. It also observed that by issuance of directions to the State Governments and the Centre to undertake exercise, the court was not expressing any opinion on the veracity of the allegations in the plea.  The court’s order came in a plea filed by National Solidarity Forum that had sought for setting up of SIT of officers from outside the States with regards to alleged attacks against Christian’s for registering FIR’s, conducting criminal investigations and prosecuting offenders. The petition had argued that violence against Christian’s was rising owing to the failure of the State machinery to protect its own citizens.

The Centre told the court it should not entertain the PIL based on “self-serving reports” as it could have wider ramifications. “We need to separate grain from the chaff, even though we believe that an attack on individuals does not mean it is an attack on the community. We need to verify the claims of any such incident claimed in the public interest litigation (PIL),” a bench of Justices DY Chandrachud and Hima Kohli said. Deprecating the court’s stand, the Centre contended 162 of the cases mentioned in the PIL have been found to be fake on verification at the ground level.

Responding to the contention, the bench said, “This is a PIL and we are starting with a presumption that what is being claimed may be true.  “We can have a verification exercise and start with at least 4-5 states and ask the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to submit a report after collating the data on what action has been taken on such incidents of violence, status of FIRs and arrests made and whether any charge sheet has been filed in these cases or not.”