New Delhi [India], April 13 : The Central government on Thursday told the Supreme Court that the figures provided by the petitioners on the alleged attacks on Christians and their institutions were incorrect and they just wanted "the pot boiling".
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for the Centre said the apex court had taken note of the matter on basis of the figures provided by the petitioners, however, the figures given by them were incorrect.
It was apparent that the petitioners just wanted "the pot boiling" to sully the image of the country.
"The petition sent a wrong message to the public. This is how it is displayed outside the country. This is the message that goes out to the public that Christians are in danger and are being attacked. This is wrong," Solicitor General told a bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala.
The Centre collated the responses from the States and as per the data figures provided by the petitioners were found to be "wrong", he added.
"The petitioner claimed that there are some 500 incidents where Christians were attacked. We sent everything to the State governments. We collated all information we got," SG said.
He further said, "First, let's see Bihar. The total number which the petitioner gave are internal fights between neighbours and one of which happens to be Christian, this they have resolved... The figure given by them, which obviously persuaded the court, was not correct."
Mehta said, "Wherever there is a grave offence and arrests had to be made, arrests have been made."
The bench took note of the report filed by the Centre and granted three weeks to the petitioners to respond to it after senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for them, wished to file a response on the Centre's affidavit.
Earlier, the Centre had said that the majority of the incidents cited by the petitioner as attacks on Christians were wrongfully projected in news reports.
The Centre had said that there was no merit in the plea and the petitioner has "resorted to falsehood and self-serving documents" along with press reports which have misreported such incidents.
Criminal cases arising out of personal issues have been given communal colour, the Centre had said.
The petition was filed by the Archbishop Of Bangalore Diocese Dr Peter Machado seeking directions to stop violence and mob attacks against the members of the Christian community in various States across the country and also the implementation of earlier apex court guidelines to curb hate crimes.
The petition had sought the setting up of Special Investigation Teams with officers from outside the States where the incidents set out to register FIRs, conduct criminal investigations and prosecute the criminal offenders in accordance with the law.
It had further sought direction that the SITs file closure reports in accordance with the law, where false counter FIRs have been filed by the assailants against the victims.
The petition had also sought implementation of the guidelines issued in the Tehseen Poonawala judgement in which nodal officers were to be appointed to take note of hate crimes and register FIRs across the nation.
The Supreme Court in 2018, issued a slew of guidelines for the Centre and State governments to control and prevent the increasing number of hate crimes, including mob violence and lynching.
The guidelines included fast-tracked trials, victim compensation, deterrent punishment and disciplinary action against lax law-enforcing officials. The top court had said offences such as hate crimes, cow vigilantism and lynching incidents should be nipped in the bud.
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