The Supreme Court on Tuesday gave Centre six more weeks to complete consultations with states on the demand to grant minority status to Hindus in states where their numbers have gone below other communities. A bench of Justices S K Kaul and A S Oka also asked states and Union Territories which have not submitted their views to the Centre to do the same within four weeks from receipt of its order. In its latest affidavit intimating the court about the status of these consultations, the government said it had received comments from 14 states and Union Territories and has sent reminders to others to send in their views at the earliest. The court was hearing a clutch of petitions, including one by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay, challenging the constitutional validity of the National Minority Commission Act-1992 that gives the Centre power to notify minorities, and seeking implementation of the top court’s landmark 2002 ruling in TMA Pai case which said that for the purposes of Article 30 — that deals with the rights of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions — religious and linguistic minorities will have to be identified at the state level. On Tuesday, Upadhyay pointed out that besides the TMA Pai judgment, there was also an April 2007 Allahabad High Court ruling in a case — Committee of Management of Anjuman Madarsa Noorul Islam Dehra Kalan, Ghazipur, vs State of UP Through Secretary — that said “protection under Articles 29 and 30 of the Constitution of India was given to such minorities categorised into three by the Constituent Assembly on the basis of population & strength which were non-dominant groups in India at the time of Partition of India, i.e., (i) having 1/2 per cent population and strength, (ii) having population and strength less than 1-1/2% and (iii) having population and strength above 1-1 That will be the basis to determine minority”. Accordingly, the HC held that “Muslims have now ceased to be a religious minority in India and in any case in Uttar Pradesh on the basis of their population & strength,” Upadhyay pointed out and added that the ruling is still unchallenged. Contending that the expression “minority” has not been defined anywhere, Upadhyay said that after the TMA Pai ruling, the October 23, 1993 notification by which the Centre had notified Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis, as ‘minority’ communities, had become as good as invalid. Though the SC issued notice to the Centre in the matter on August 28, 2020, the BJP-led Centre did not file any response and finally did so only in March this year, after the court pulled it up and imposed a cost of Rs 7,500 for dragging its feet. Initially, the government sought to put the onus upon states, but with the stand attracting criticism, the Centre told the court that it has the power to notify minorities. It, however, added that the matter has “far-reaching ramifications”, and sought time for consultations with “state governments and other stakeholders”. On August 29, the Centre in an affidavit said it had held discussions with eight states and two Union Territories and sought more time for wider consultations with the stakeholders. The court granted the request.
