SC directs NCM to define ‘minority’

THE PETITION ARGUES THAT TERM MINORITY NEEDS TO BE REDEFINED IN THE CONTEXT OF POPULATION OF A COMMUNITY IN A STATE, INSTEAD OF NATIONWIDE POPULATION DATA

NEWDELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday directed the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) to take a decision within three months on a representation seeking laying down of guidelines for defining the term ‘minority’ in the context of state-wise population of a community.

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Ranjan Gogoi asked Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and lawyer Ashwini Upadhyay to re-file his representation to the minority panel which, in turn, will take a decision on it within three months from Monday.

Upadhyay, in his plea, has said that the term minority needed to be redefined and reconsidered in the context of population of a community in a state, instead of nationwide population data.

The plea said that Hindus, who are a majority community as per national data, are a minority in several north-eastern states and in Jammu and Kashmir.

However, the Hindu commu- nity is deprived of benefits which are available to the minority communities in these states, the plea said, adding that NCM should reconsider the definition of minority in this context.

The apex court had on November 10, 2017, declined to entertain a plea filed by Upadhyay seeking minority status for Hindus in seven states and one Union Territory and asked him to approach the National Commission for Minorities.

The plea had sought minority status for Hindus in seven states and one Union Territory where the number of the community has fallen down, according to the Census 2011. NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Monday said it will hear in July a plea of Zakia Jafri, challenging the SIT’S clean chit to the then Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi in connection with the 2002 Godhra riots.

Abench headed by Justice AM Khanwilkar listed the matter for hearing in July. Zakia, the wife of ex-mp Ehsan Jafri who was one of the 68 killed in Ahmedabad’s Gulberg society, has challenged the Gujarat high court’s October 5, 2017 order rejecting her plea against the SIT decision.

On February 8, 2012, the SIT filed a closure report giving a clean chit to Modi and 63 others, saying there was “no prosecutable evidence” against them.

Jafri’s counsel had told the apex court that a notice needs to be issued in the plea as it pertains to alleged “larger conspiracy” during February 27, 2002 and May 2002. It had also maintained that after the SIT gave a clean chit in its closure report before a trial judge, the petitioner filed a protest which was dismissed by the magistrate without considering “substantiated merits”. PTI