Centre, states can declare Hindus as minorities if less in numbers, centre tells SC; but asks court not to step in

BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay had objected to Muslims getting benefit of such schemes in JK where Muslims are a majority and Hindus are in a minority or Sikhs getting benefits of such schemes in Punjab where Sikhs are in a majority while Hindus are not.

He had also objected to majority Christians in the states of Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Ladakh and Lakshadweep getting the benefits of minority schemes in these states where they are in a majority.

He argued that any such move will also benefit other minority communities such as the followers of Judaism and Bahaism in these states.

The top court had issued notices to the central government seeking its views on why communities which are numerically smaller shouldn’t be declared as minorities.

Today, the Minority Affairs Ministry in an affidavit said that both the central government and the state governments have the power to declare such communities as religious or linguistic minorities within their territories.

This leaves state governments free to declare them to do so. The central government argued that this cannot in any way take away the power of the centre to also declare them as minorities.

This is significant given the fact that the centre can still take a call to declare any community as minority, if the data shows that their numbers are small, in a state should the state fail to do so.

Ironically though, the central government urged the top court to dismiss the advocate’s plea on the ground that it was neither in public interest or national interest. This leaves the onus on the top court to take a call on whether to order the centre or state governments to specifically do so or leave it to their discretion as involved policy decisions.

Citing examples of states which have already taken such states, the central government said that Maharashtra had declared Jews as a minority in its state while Karnataka had identified many languages such as Urdu, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, Tulu, Lamani, Hindi, Konkani and Gujarati as minority languages in the state.

The ministry clarified that most of these schemes do not involve quotas in jobs and admissions but efforts to raise the education level and participation in employment, skill and entrepreneurship development and reducing deficiencies in civic amenities and infrastructure.

These are mostly targeted at the most disadvantaged among the minorities such as women and children and those who are economically weaker and hence do not violate the right to equality guaranteed to all under the Constitution.

Upadhyay had urged the top court to strike down the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, or the National Commission for Minority Education Institution Act, 2004, on the ground that it violated the right to equality of citizens.