Centre reply sought on minorities PIL
NEWDELHI:THE Supreme Court on Friday sought the Centre’s response to a public interest litigation (PIL) demanding the classification of religious minorities based on their population in each state.
The PIL sought guidelines to enable minorities to establish and run institutions under the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI) Act.
A three-judge bench headed by justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul issued a notice to three central government ministries—home, law & justice and minority affairs—based on the petition filed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay. The matter will be heard after six weeks.
The PIL challenged the validity of Section 2(f) of the NCMEI Act 2004, which, the petition stated, gives “unbridled powers” to the Centre to restrict minority benefits to five religious communities—muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsees.
In addition, the PIL demanded the Centre lay down guidelines for the identification of minority communities at the state-level “to ensure that only those religious and linguistic groups which are socially, economically, politically non-dominant and numerically inferior, can establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.”
In December 2019, Upadhyay approached the top court with a similar request wherein he challenged the classification of five religious communities as minorities under Section 2(c) of the National Commission of Minorities (NCM) Act 1992.
This was based on a government notification of October 23, 1992 classifying Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsees as minority groups based on their national population.
A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde had then dismissed the petition, observing, “States were formed on linguistic basis but religion has to be pan-india.”
The present petition has revived the same issue but via a different route. Instead of challenging the NCM Act, the petitioner has challenged the classification of minorities under the NCMEI Act. Upadhyay has cited a 2002 ruling of the top court in the TMA Pai case, which states that for identifying linguistic minorities, a state must be treated as the basic unit.
Speaking to HT, Upadhyay said, “My fresh petition is different from the earlier petition. In this petition I have challenged the classification of minorities under the NCMEI Act.”
On February 20, Upadhyay approached the apex court yet again with a request to declare Hindus as a minority in eight states/union territories where their population is less. A bench headed by justice RF Nariman allowed Upadhyay to withdraw his petition and approach the individual high courts.