A petition seeking a special probe into shelter homes, including those run by the Missionaries of Charity (MC), in a central Indian state has been dismissed by the country’s top court. “Yes, we are aware of the case; but don’t want to comment on it,” said a nun from the Mother House, the headquarters of the congregation started by St. Mother Teresa, in the eastern Kolkata city, on Sept. 25. The petition was filed by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) in 2020, two years after MC sisters were accused of selling babies from their shelter homes in the central state of Jharkhand. In 2018, a raid was ordered by the then Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state. That same year, Jharkhand police arrested a nun from the Kolkota-based congregation and sent her to jail for close to three months following a complaint from a couple over payment made while adopting a child. The NCPCR said it approached the top court after the new state government made continuous attempts to sabotage its probe. Its counsel said the child rights panel wanted a “court-monitored, time-bound” probe into all shelter homes in Jharkhand. The Supreme Court on Sept. 24 dismissed the petition saying it “is totally misconstrued.” “Don’t drag the Supreme Court into your agenda,” a bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Nongmeikapam Kotiswar Singh told the child rights panel, which reports to the federal government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The ruling BJP used the allegations against the MC nuns to target other shelter homes and sought scrapping of the congregation’s license to receive foreign funds. In 2019, the right-wing party lost power and a secular regional party came to power in Jharkhand.
“It is shocking to learn that a federal statutory body like the NCPCR can file a frivolous petition before the top court,” said A. C. Michael, a Catholic leader based in the national capital New Delhi. On the other hand, the court should appoint a special team to probe the NCPCR as it often oversteps “into areas beyond its jurisdiction to harass Christian institutions,” added Michael, a former member of the minority commission in the Delhi government. Christian leaders have accused the NCPCR under its current chairperson Priyank Kanoongo of conducting raids on their institutions in violation of the laid down norms and registering false cases against bishops, priests, and nuns.