SC seeks govt’s reply on transfer plea against minority status notice

THE PETITIONER SAID THAT IN ORDER TO AVOID MULTIPLICITY OF LITIGATIONS AND CONFLICTING VIEWS, THE TRANSFER PLEA HAS BEEN MOVED BEFORE THE APEX COURT

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court Tuesday sought government’s reply on a plea, seeking transfer of cases from several high courts to it against the Centre’s notification to declare five communities — Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsees — as minorities even in those states and UTs where they are in majority.

A bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian issued notices to Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Law and Justice and Ministry of Minority Affairs.

The high courts at Delhi, Meghalaya and Guwahati are seized of the petitions challenging the Constitutional validity of section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, under which the notification was issued on October 23, 1993.

The notification had declared the five communities as minorities across the country, leading to a situation where majority population of Sikhs in Punjab and Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir are availing of the benefits meant for minorities, the transfer petition alleged.

The apex court was hearing a plea filed by lawyer and BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay seeking transfer of all cases from high courts to the apex court for an authoritative pronouncement on the issue.

Senior advocate C S Vaidyanathan appeared for Upadhyay in the matter.

The petition, filed through advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey, said that in order to avoid multiplicity of litigations and conflicting views, the transfer plea has been moved before the apex court. Arbitrary and irrational disbursement of minority benefits to majority infringes upon the fundamental right to the prohibition of discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth, the plea said.