Minority status for Hindus: Supreme Court declines plea

The Supreme Court of India (File Photo)

The Supreme Court on Friday declined to entertain a plea seeking minority status for Hindus in seven states and one Union Territory where the community numbers have fallen according to the 2011 Census. A bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi “closed” the writ petition after BJP leader Ashwani Kumar Upadhyay, who had filed it, prayed “for liberty to withdraw this writ petition and instead approach the National Commission for Minorities”.

The petitioner had claimed that “according to 2011 Census, Hindus are in minority in Lakshadweep (2.5%), Mizoram (2.75%), Nagaland (8.75%), Meghalaya (11.53%), J&K (28.44%), Arunachal Pradesh (29%), Manipur (31.39%) and Punjab (38.40%)”. However, their minority rights were being siphoned off to the majority population because neither the Centre nor the state governments have notified Hindus as a “minority” under Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minority Act, the petition said.