New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday, displeased with the news reports alleging that it was delaying hearing a plea alleging increasing attacks on Christian institutions and clerics across the country, said that there is a limit to how much you can target judges.
A bench comprising Justices DY Chandrachud and Surya Kant said "Give us a break".
"Last time the matter could not be taken because I was down with Covid. You get it published in newspapers that the Supreme Court is delaying the hearing. Look, there is a limit to which you can target the judges. Who supplies all this news? The news I saw online was that judges are delaying the hearing. Give us a break. One of the judges is down with Covid and this is the reason we could not take the matter. Anyway, we will list it otherwise there will be another news item," the bench observed orally.
The observation came after the petitioner's lawyer asked for a hearing in the case.
Senior advocate Colin Gonsalves mentioned the matter before a vacation bench in June and said that on average, 45 to 50 violent attacks on Christian institutions and priests across the country take place every month.
The relief sought in the petition filed by Peter Machado and others includes the implementation of the guidelines issued by the Supreme Court in the Tahseen Poonawala judgment to appoint nodal officers to take notice of hate crimes and register FIRs.
In 2018, the Supreme Court issued several guidelines for the Center and the States. These include fast-tracked trials, victim compensation, preventive punishment and disciplinary action against law enforcement officers who show laxity.
The court had said that crimes like hate crimes, cow vigilantism and mob killings should be nipped in the bud.
With PTI inputs