Supreme Court wants 'concret cases' of Hindus being denied minority status in certain states

New Delhi, July 19: The Supreme Court said that "concrete cases" needs to be shown in which Hindus are being denied minority status in certain states in order to entertain a plea seeking minority tag for Hindus in states were they are numerically less.

 

 

A bench of Justices UU Lalit, Ravindra Bhat and Sudhanshu Dhulia orally observed, "If there is a concrete case that Hindus are denied minority status in Mizoram or Kashmir, we can consider...... Unless and until we get a concrete situation, we can't deal with this."

 

The PIL was filed by Devknandan Thaukur challenges the 1993 notification of the Central Government declaring Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsi and Jain as minorities at the national level and seeks directions to identify minorities at district-level.

 

Senior Advocate Arvind Datar, appearing for the petitioner, submitted that notification of 1993 notified Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsi and Jain as minorities at the national level. However, the judgments say minorities have to notified qua the particular state, he added. He claimed that Hindus cannot establish and administer educational institutions of their choice because of non-identification of ‘minority’ at State level, thus jeopardising their basic rights guaranteed under Articles 29 and 30.

 

 

Unless a Hindu person is denied minority status in any state, the bench may not be able to consider the issue, the court added while pointed out that the court was unable to understand the injury claimed by the petitioner at present. Datar requested a week's adjournment to clarify the queries of the bench. He also pointed out that a similar petition is being considered by a bench led by Justice SK Kaul.

 

It is the petitioner's case that Hindus are numerically less in certain states and regions, but they are not given the rights of minorities. Relying on statistics of Hindus, the petitioner highlights that the numbers are: 1% in Ladakh, 2.75% in Mizoram, 2.77% in Lakshadweep, 4% in Kashmir, 8.74% in Nagaland, 11.52% in Meghalaya, 29% in Arunachal Pradesh, 38.49% in Punjab, 41.29% in Manipur. But the Centre has not declared them a 'minority'.

 

 

On the other hand, the Centre has declared Muslims as minority, who are 96.58% in Lakshadweep, 95% in Kashmir, 46% in Ladakh. Similarly, Centre has declared Christians as minority, who are 88.10% in Nagaland, 87.16% in Mizoram & 74.59% in Meghalaya. Hence, they can establish and administer educational institution of their choice as per Article 30. In this backdrop, the petitioner argues that Section 2(c) of the NCM Act 1992, which gives "unbridled power to the Centre" to notify minorities, is manifestly arbitrary, irrational & contrary to Articles 14, 15, 21, 29, 30 of the Constitution.

 

This apart, the petitioner further seeks a direction asking the Union Government to define the term 'minority' and lay down 'guidelines for identification of minorities at district level', in order to ensure that only those religious and linguistic groups, which are socially economically politically non-dominant & numerically very inferior, get the benefits and protections guaranteed under Articles 29 and 30.

On a related note, the Supreme Court is considering a similar PIL filed by Aswhini Upadhyay challenging the provisions of National Commission for Minorities Act 1992 and National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act 2004 and also seeks minority status for Hindus in certain States/UTs.