NEW DELHI: The Centre has told the Supreme Court that a plea alleging increasing attacks on Christians across the country, is an attempt to paint a false picture.
Relying upon data collected from eight states, the Union government flagged its concern, saying petitions like these are projected outside the country to say look Christians are in danger".
"Perusal of the verification reports furnished reveals that state governments have stated that majority of the incidents (263 out of 495) from the list furnished by the counsel for the petitioner(s) have not been reported to them," the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said in an affidavit.
It said out of 232 incidents which have been reported to the concerned state governments, the matters were resolved in 73 incidents amicably with mutual agreement between both the parties.
These 73 incidents were related to land disputes, family disputes, superstitious practices, violation of Covid-19 guidelines and other trivial issues. FIR/non-FIR complaints were registered in the remaining 155 cases,'' added.
On Thursday, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, representing the Centre, opposed the plea argued by senior advocate Colin Gonsalves on behalf of the petitioners before a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala.
"They want to keep the pot boiling that is very apparent.in fact there are 64 arrests in Chhattisgarhstate governments are saying most of the incidents never happenedand this would be projected outside the countrylook Christians are in danger.that is our concern.
Gonsalves said it is not a question of arrests.
In its written response, the Centre said in Bihar the petitioners claimed 38 incidents (attack on Christians) had happened. However state government reported 15 incidents, out of which 5 matters were resolved amicably between both the parties, 12 accused were arrested and charge-sheets have been filed in 2 cases.
In Chhattisgarh, 119 incidents were claimed by the petitioners. However state government reported 36 incidents and in 12 incidents matters were related to family dispute, which was resolved amicably, and 64 accused were arrested and charge-sheets have been filed in 13 cases.
In Uttar Pradesh, 150 incidents were claimed by the petitioners but 70 incidents were reported by the state government. It further added that 44 FIRs were registered and 72 accused were arrested and 33 were served notice under section 41-A of CrPC, and charge-sheets have been filed in 30 cases.
During the hearing, Mehta, stressing petitioners data on number of attacks on Christians is incorrect, submitted that in Bihar, petitioners claimed 38 incidents but these were fights between neighbours where one happens to be a Christian, and fights were resolved and whenever there is a grave offence, arrests have happened.
Mehta also questioned the data from the helpline referred by the petitioners, on which whoever reported an incident was counted.
After hearing submissions, the bench noted that counsel for petitioners said the MHAs affidavit was received last night and time should be granted to them to file a response if needed.
The court listed the petition filed by Most Rev Dr Peter Machado and others for hearing after three weeks.
The MHAs affidavit said that it is evident from the information furnished by the concerned state governments that the counsel for the petitioners has exaggerated the number of incidents and many incidents alleged as Christian persecution in the report of the counsel for the petitioners may have been either false or wrongly projected.
It is submitted that many trivial disputes between two parties are likely to have been given religious colour. For example- in relation to an incident in the district Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh, the Counsel for the petitioner(s)in their report, has claimed that the police barged in and disrupted the prayer of pastor Prem Singh and warned the pastor to discontinue with their services as well as detained the pastor. However, the verification report of the government of Uttar Pradesh reveals that there is a land dispute between pastor Prem Singh and a local resident named Vijay Kumar. Police action in the matter was projected as persecution of Christians. The matter was deliberately given religious colour," the affidavit said.
It also pointed out that in reference to Christians Under Attack in India - a fact finding report prepared by the Association for Protection of Civil Right (APCR), the UCF, and United Against Hate UAH, the verification reports received from concerned state Governments thereof reveals that many allegations and observations made in the report were found to be unfounded and the majority of the incidents quoted either were false or deliberately exaggerated, and uncorroborated.
The incidents, quoted here, from the UCF, PR (Persecution Relief) and EFI/ RLC's (Evangelical Fellowship of India- Religious Liberty Commissions) reports were based on the alleged calls on their helpline and social media sites and the said organization have no mechanism to corroborate the incidents reported to them over the helpline or their websites, it added.
The MHA also said India is a vibrant pluralistic society founded on strong democratic principles and practices and the Indian Constitution guarantees fundamental rights to all citizens including the Right to Freedom of Religion under Article 25 to 28 of the Constitution, and all persons have equal right to practice, profess and propagate their religion peacefully.
The affidavit said the attempt of the petitioners is to paint a particularly false picture for aims unknown.
"It is submitted that the country is governed by the rule of law and the attempt of the petitioners is to create a false narrative through the present Article 32 petition must be deprecated," it added.
The present petition is an attempt to short-circuit the process of law followed by the entire country that ought to be stalled," it said, seeking dismissal of the plea.
