Hindus can be declared 'minority' in states where they're numerically lower strength: Centre tells Supreme Court

Satya Prakash

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 27

Ahead of Monday hearing on a PIL seeking minority status for Hindus in nine states and union territories, including Punjab, where they were numerically in lower strength, the Centre has told the Supreme Court that the states concerned can notify Hindus as “minority” for setting up of minority educational institutions.

In an affidavit filed in response to a PIL by Delhi BJP leader Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, the Ministry of Minority Affairs said in states where they are in a minority, Hindus can be notified as minorities for the purposes of Articles 29 and 30 of the Constitution by the state governments concerned.

The affidavit defended the National Commission for Minorities Act 1992 and National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act 2004, saying Parliament has the legislative competence to pass such a law. It also defended minority welfare schemes run by the Centre on the ground that there was no constitutional infirmity as these were meant for underprivileged students and economically weaker sections of the minority community and not for everyone belonging to the minority community.

Upadhyay’s PIL demanded minority status for Hindus in Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Lakshadweep on the ground that Hindus were numerically lower strength in these states/UTs.

A Bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul – which had on January 7 imposed a cost of Rs 7500 on the Centre for not spelling out its stand despite repeated reminders — is scheduled to take up the PIL on March 28.

Citing the Supreme Court’s verdict in the TMA Pai case, the Centre said minorities have to be determined in reference to the entire population in a state and the state governments too have the power to declare a community as a “minority”.

The Centre gave the example of Maharashtra where Jews were declared as a minority in the state in 2016. Similarly, Karnataka Government notified Urdu, Telugu, Malayalam, Tamil, Marathi and Tulu as linguistic minorities in the state.

“Therefore, in view of the States also notifying minority communities, the petitioner’s allegation that the followers of Judaism, Bahaism and Hinduism, who are real minorities in Ladakh, Mizoram, Lakshadweep, Kashmir, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab and Manipur, cannot establish and administer educational institutions of their choice is not correct,” the Centre said, adding laying down guidelines for identification of minority at state level may be considered by the states concerned.

Article 29 of the Constitution, which talks about protection of interests of minorities, says, “Any section of the citizens residing in the territory of India or any part thereof having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same.’ Article 30 of the Constitution, which guarantees a fundamental right to minorities to establish and administer their own educational institutions, says, “All minorities, whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.”

But the term “minority” has not been defined under the Constitution, leading to confusion as to who all are entitled to reap the benefits meant for minorities under the Constitution and various schemes, policies and programmes of central and state governments.

Section 2(iii) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992 simply says, “Minority”, for the purposes of this Act, means a community notified as such by the Central Government. It doesn’t prescribe any criteria, whatsoever, for the purpose, leaving it to the discretion of the government. When the Centre issued a notification on October 23, 1993 it simply declared Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Parsis and Buddhists as minorities without there being any guidelines. Jains were added to the list in 2014, based on their demographic numbers.