Supreme Court permits Christian prayer meet in Indore

The Supreme Court on Wednesday granted permission for a Christian community prayer meet to be held as scheduled today at Indore in Madhya Pradesh [Suresh Carletons vs State of Madhya Pradesh and ors]..A bench of Justices BR Gavai, Satish Chandra Sharma and Sandeep Mehta stayed the orders of the Madhya Pradesh High Court and the district administration in this regard."Prima facie, we find that the revocation of the permission which was granted in favour of the petitioner of holding the prayer meeting is not justified. The permission which was granted .... specified various conditions so as to safeguard the interest of all the stake-holders and also to ensure that no law and order situation would arise ... In that view of the matter, we stay the order of revocation dated 07.04.2024", the bench observed.The bench sought the response of the Madhya Pradesh government in the matter within four weeks.An Indore assistant election officer had recently cancelled permission for the event citing law and order issues. The same was upheld by the High Court which led to the appeal before the top court..According to PTI, Chennai-based Christian preacher Dr. Paul Dhinakaran is slated to be the keynote speaker at the meeting.The Indore administration had stated that there is opposition to the event from Hindu outfits and other social organisations, who had filed complaints at the Tukoganj Police Station.Suresh Carletons (petitioner), who is the Christian Hospital Indore administrator and the chairperson of the prayer meet's organising committee, then moved the Indore Bench of the High Court against the district administration's last-minute decision.The High Court dismissed the plea stating,"This court is of the considered opinion that it might be true that the intention of the petitioner to convene such meeting must be purely religious in nature, however, the concern raised by the respondents can also not be said to be unfounded." The Supreme Court in appeal against the same allowed the meeting to go through. .Senior Counsel Santosh Paul and advocates Lija Merin John, Sanbha Rumnong, Aakarsh Kamra and Ajay Shaw represented the petitioner..[Read order]