The Central government on Thursday told the Supreme Court that the figures on the alleged attacks on Christians and their institutions were incorrect and they just wanted “the pot boiling”.

Contesting the claims of alleged attacks on the Christians and their institutions, the Centre has told the apex court that it was apparent that the petitioners just wanted to keep the “the pot boiling” to sully the image of the country.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre, told a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justice Pamidighantam Sri Narasimha and Justice J B Pardiwala, “The petition sent a wrong message to the public. This is how it is being 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.”

Archbishop of Bangalore Diocese Dr. Peter Machadoc and other Christian community leaders had sought directions to the Centre to take steps to stop violence and mob attacks against the members of the Christian community in various states across the country and for enforcing of the guidelines issued by the top court by its 2018 judgment to curb hate crimes.

The solicitor general said that as per the information furnished by the states, the figures of alleged attacks on the Christians and their institutions were found to be “wrong”.

“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,” Solicitor General said further pointing out that neighbourhood fights in which one side happens to be a Christian is being projected as an attack on them.

He said wherever there is “grave offence and arrests had to be made, arrests have been made.”

Taking note of the report filed by the Centre, the bench gave three weeks’ time to the petitioner to respond to it. Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves, appearing for the petitioners, sought time to file response to the Centre’s reply.

The Supreme Court had on September 1, 2022, asked the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to call for reports from eight State governments – Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Bihar, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh –  on a plea alleging attacks on the Christian community and their institutions and absence of nodal officers  to check and prevent such incidents including hate speech as ordered by the top court in 2018.

The top court by its 2018 judgment had mandated both the Centre and the States to take preventive steps to curb hate crimes including the lynching incidents.