The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Union Ministry of Home Affairs to collect data from Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha on communal violence directed against Christian community, number of persons arrested and the stage of investigation in such cases.
The directive of the apex court came on a PIL filed by Rev Dr Peter Machado of National Solidarity Forum, Rev. Vijayesh Lal of Evangelical Fellowship of India and others alleging violence against the members of the Christian community in the country.
Appearing for the Union government, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta told the Court that on verification the majority of the alleged cases of violence mentioned in the PIL were found false and based on “self-serving articles” published on a web portal.
However, the apex court observed that though the Court has not accepted the allegations, it would be better to verify allegations made in the PIL.
In an earlier hearing on the PIL on 16 August, the Home Ministry in an affidavit to the Supreme Court claimed that the petition alleging attacks on the Christian community was based on “falsehood” and “selective self-serving documents”.
A bench led by Justice D.Y. Chandrachud is hearing the case.