Two States Yet To Furnish Information, Supreme Court Adjourns PIL Alleging Attacks Against Christians

The Supreme Court today adjourned a PIL regarding alleged attacks on the Christian Community in the country. The Court sought the status of compliance with its previous order of September 1.

The Bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha and Justice JB Pardiwala while adjourning the plea, directed the remaining two state to furnish the required information.

The Court was told that seven out of nine states have complied with the previous order, by which the states were directed to furnish information regarding the (a) registration of FIRs; (b) status of the investigation; (c) arrests made; and (d) the charge sheets filed.

The Court was further informed that the only states remaining to comply are the states of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh.

The Counsel appearing for the state of Chhattisgarh submitted that they have already filed the status report and that there are no FIRs relating to any attack on the Christian community. The Court directed the state of Jharkhand to comply with its earlier order within two weeks.

On the last date of the hearing, it was noted that only Haryana has submitted the report to the Centre while the AAG appearing for the State of U.P. submitted that the relevant information has already been furnished.

The Public Interest Litigation filed by Rev. Dr. Peter Machado, National Solidarity Forum, Rev. Vijayesh Lal of Evangelical Fellowship of India and others, seeks directions to the Centre and States to take action to prevent violence against the members of the Christian community in the country and setting up of an SIT to probe alleged incidents of violence against the Christian community.

Earlier, the Court had said that it will only consider the implementation of its 2018 Judgment of the Court in the matter of Tehseen S. Poonawalla vs Union Of India on curbing mob violence and not individual instances of alleged violence against Christians in the Country that are cited by the Petitioners.

The Central Government, through the Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs had filed an affidavit objecting to the maintainability of the PIL stating that "there appears to be some hidden oblique agenda in filing such deceptive petitions, creating an unrest throughout the country and perhaps for getting assistance from outside the country to meddle with internal affairs of our nation".

Cause Title- Most. Rev. Dr. Peter Machado & Ors. v. Union of India & Ors.