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Central Government gets 4 weeks’ notice to determine ‘minority’ status for Hindus in 8 States

Editorial Comments

  • Hindus do not expect that such PILs need to be filed with a BJP Government in power !
  • Why do Hindus have to always fight for their rights in a so-called secular state ?

New Delhi – On 7th January, the Supreme Court gave the Central Government ‘the last opportunity’ to respond to a public interest petition which demands that minorities be identified Statewise and that Hindus be declared a minority in six states and two Union territories.

Hearing the petition which relied on the Supreme Court’s 2002 TMA Pai judgment that religious and linguistic minorities have to be considered Statewise under the Constitution’s Article 30, a Bench of Justices SK Kaul and MM Sundresh gave the Centre 4 weeks after Solicitor General Tushar Mehta sought more time to file an affidavit. The Supreme Court also allowed 2 weeks after that for filing a rejoinder and will hear the matter after seven weeks.

Article 30 deals with the rights of minorities to establish and run educational institutions.

The petitioner, Ashwini Upadhyay, challenged the constitutional validity of Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, under which only Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Zoroastrians have been declared minorities, arguing that this has deprived groups like Hindus, Baha’is, and Jews of their legitimate rights.

The petition cited the 2011 Census figures to show Hindus are a minority in 6 States – Mizoram (2.75 per cent), Nagaland (8.75 per cent), Meghalaya (11.53 per cent), Arunachal Pradesh (29 per cent), Manipur (31.39 per cent), Punjab (38.40 per cent) – and in the Union territories of Jammu & Kashmir (28.44 per cent) and Lakshadweep (2.5 per cent).

“Hindus are the real minorities in Laddakh, Mizoram, Lakshadweep, Kashmir, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab and Manipur. However, their minority rights are being siphoned off illegally and arbitrarily … because neither the Centre nor the States have notified them as minorities … Hindus are being deprived of their basic rights and protections guaranteed under Article 29-30”, the petitioner, represented by senior Advocate CS Vaidyanathan, argued.

Accepting the petitioner’s request, the Apex Court transferred similar petitions against the National Commission for Minorities Act from the High Courts of Gauhati, Meghalaya and Delhi to itself.

The petitioner also submitted that Christians are considered a minority despite being the majority in Mizoram, Meghalaya and Nagaland, and having considerable population in Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Kerala, Manipur, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Likewise, Sikhs are also treated as a minority community in spite of their being a majority in Punjab and forming a significant part of the population in Delhi, Chandigarh and Haryana. Muslims, who are the majority in Lakshadweep and Jammu & Kashmir and have a significant representation in Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, are also considered a minority community, the petitioner stated.

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