The Supreme Court today said it would want some “concrete examples” of Hindus being denied minority status at the state level, as it hears a plea challenging national minority status for six religious communities.
It will next hear the petition — which wants state-wise minority status as per population — two weeks from now.
A Hindu spiritual leader, Devkinandan Thakur, has filed the public interest litigation or PIL. It challenges Section 2(C) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, which declares Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Parsis, Sikhs and Jains as minorities at the national level. The plea wants district-wise identification of minorities and state-wise status.
Senior advocate Arvind Datar argued for the petitioner that, while a 1993 notification says these six communities are minorities at the national level, several court judgments say minorities have to be notified by states. “We are talking about Hindus being denied minority status. It is believed that that Hindus cannot be minority,” he said.
To this argument, Justice UU Lalit responded, “Only if there is a concrete case that Hindus are denied minority status, in Mizoram or Kashmir, can we look into this.” All disputes over minority status will not be examined state-wise, the court also said.
The court had stressed that the issue of identification of minorities, including Hindus, at the state level needs a resolution and observed that “taking different stands doesn’t help”.
The Centre has most recently told the court that the power to notify minorities is vested with the Union government and any decision in this regard will be taken after discussion with states and other stakeholders. Earlier, the Ministry of Minority Affairs had said state governments can declare any religious or linguistic community a minority within the state.
