Ethnicity issue: Sikh group in UK moves high court

The high court in London on Wednesday concluded hearing a British Sikh group’s case for a separate Sikh ethnicity tick box in the next UK census in 2021.

Judge Beverley Lang reserved her judgment that will be given at a later date after the two-day hearing considered the submissions presented by the Sikh Federation (UK) and the counter arguments of the UK Cabinet Office.

The Sikh Federation UK, represented by the law firm Leigh Day at the Royal Courts of Justice, believes it would be “unlawful” for the cabinet office to lay before Parliament a census order based on the proposals set out by the UK’s Office for National Statistics (ONS) in its December 2018 White Paper, which had rejected the need for a separate tick box.

“There is overwhelming public, Sikh community and crossparty support. We have been forced to go to the high court on #GuruNanak500 to tackle discrimination,” Sikh Federation UK said in a Twitter statement, in reference to the proceedings coinciding with the 550th Guru Nanak birth anniversary celebrations on Tuesday.

Sikhs are recognised as a separate religion in the optional religious question introduced in the 2001 Census. The UK’s Race Relations (Amendment) Act, 2000, placed an obligatory duty on the country’s public authorities to monitor and positively promote race equality in the provision of public services.

According to Sikh Federation UK, which claims the backing of UK gurdwaras, public bodies tend to only refer to the ethnic groups used in the census and demand a separate Sikh ethnic tick box to ensure Sikhs have fair access to all public services.

The issue has triggered a war of words between different British Sikh groups, with the Network of Sikh Organisations (NSO) highlighting that the occasion of the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak should be reflective of his principles of one common humanity, away from “artificial labels”.