SC seeks govt report on minority status for Hindus by August 30

NEW DELHI: Not happy with the Centre changing its position on whether minority status could be given to a religious community based on its population within a state, the Supreme Court on Tuesday asked the government to consult stakeholders on this sensitive issue, and submit a report by August 30.

The bench was hearing a public interest litigation by Delhi Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, who challenged two laws — the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) Act, 1992, and the National Commission for Minorities Educational Institutions (NCMEI) Act, 2004.

Upadhyay asked why minority rights and benefits of establishing educational institutions were only available to six notified communities — Christians, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis and Jains — and contended that Hindus lost out on these benefits despite being minority in some states.

The ministry of minority affairs filed an affidavit on Monday, through which it withdrew its earlier stand taken on March 28, and submitted that the question has “far-reaching ramifications throughout the country” and, therefore, “any stand taken without detailed deliberations with the stakeholders may result in an unintended complication for the country”.

In the earlier affidavit, the Centre termed Upadhyay’s plea “untenable and misconceived in law”, and stated that Parliament and state legislatures have “concurrent powers to enact law to provide for the protection of minorities and their interests”.

“Another counter affidavit has beenfiledwhichseemstobackout of what was stated earlier, something we do not appreciate,” a bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and MM Sundresh said.

Saying how the Centre “turned turtle”, the bench told solicitor general Tushar Mehta: “How can in a matter like this an affidavit be filed that both Centre and state have power, and then say Centre alone has power? We gave you a number of dates. Consultation should have taken place. One should be careful before such an affidavit is filed and put out in public domain as there is so much of diversity in our country.”

Thebenchpostedthematterfor hearing on August 30 and sought a status report before the next date. The new affidavit was filed after the Centre undertook an inter-ministerial consultation involving three ministries, which discussed the possible fallouts and decided to supersede its earlier affidavit, Mehta said.