SC refuses to entertain a plea seeking minority status to Hindus in 8 States

The Central Government should now amend laws to redefine minorities on the lines of the Citizenship Amendment Act.

It is unfortunate that when Hindus are in minority in 8 States of Hindu-majority India, no one cares about them.

New Delhi – The Supreme Court on 13^th December refused to entertain a PIL seeking a grant of minority status to Hindus in 8 States – Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Jammu & Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Punjab.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice Sharad Bobde, however, said the petitioner (Adv. Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay) could press the case at the National Commission for Minorities. Adv. Upadhyay claimed that minority rights were being siphoned off to the majority because neither the Central nor the State Governments have notified Hindus as a ‘minority’ under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992.

Failure to identify and recognize Hindus as a minority leads to unreasonable disbursement of minority benefits to a majority, the plea said. The plea also posed a challenge to a Central Government notification of 23^rd October 1993 under which Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis, were notified as minority communities. This is not only ‘arbitrary, irrational but also invalid and ultra vires of the Constitution of India and its basic structure and must be quashed/, it said.