New Delhi, India - The Supreme Court today stayed the trial of two Christian missionaries facing criminal charges in a Kota court after they sought transfer of their cases to Delhi or any other place out of Rajasthan on the ground that they will not get a fair trial in the state.
A vacation bench of Justice A R Lakshmanan and Justice Altmas Kabir issued notices to the state of Rajasthan and four others on the transfer petition filed by V S Thomas and Samuel Thomas asking the respondents to file their replies within six weeks.
The court also asked the petitioners to implead Rajasthan Minister of State for Social Welfare Madan Dilawar as a party to the petition as the accused missionaries levelled certain allegations against him.
The court directed the petitioners to file copies of Dilawar's alleged provocative speeches and other material in support of their allegations against him.
One of the petitioners, Samuel Thomas is a Bishop and runs various organisations including an orphanage at Kota.
The police chargesheeted them along with three others for allegedly promoting enmity between different groups on ground of religion, race, place of birth, language etc and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony, criminal conspiracy and deliberately doing malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion.
Appearing for the petitioner, senior counsel M Kannadasan submitted that the buses of the schools run by Emmanuel society were being attacked and the accused could not expect a fair trial in Rajasthan.