SC asks AG to be served copy of advocate’s writ petition

The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Attorney-General of India to be served a copy of a writ petition filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay, who is seeking directions to the government to either frame guidelines for identification of minorities at States’ level or, in the alternative, to “declare Hindus as ‘Minority’ for States where they are real minority”.

A Bench led by Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi was hearing the petitioner, represented by senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, challenging a notification issued on October 23, 1993 under the “unbridled powers” of Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act of 1992.

The petition said the October 1993 notification declared Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis as ‘Minority’ community without conducting any study, research or homework.

“The classification of religious minorities by the Centre at a pan-India level has not only created a wave of inequality across different States but also encouraged those who did not belong to those minority religions, to convert themselves for the social, political and economic benefits,” it said.

According to the petition minority benefits are given to religious communities in certain States where they are in fact a majority, whereas religious communities which are actually minorities in those States are not even given equal status.

“The Christians are majority in Mizoram, Meghalaya and Nagaland and there is a significant population of them in Arunachal, Goa, Kerala, Manipur, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal but they are treated as Minority. Likewise, Sikhs are majority in Punjab and there is significant population in Delhi, Chandigarh and Haryana but they are treated as minority,” the petition said.

“Muslims are a majority in Lakshadweep (96.20%), Jammu and Kashmir (68.30%) and there is significant population in Assam (34.20%), West Bengal (27.5%), Kerala (26.60%), Uttar Pradesh (19.30%) and Bihar (18%). However, they are enjoying ‘Minority’ status, and communities, which are real minorities, are not getting their legitimate share,” it said.

Mr. Upadhyay said an 11-judge Constitution Bench in the T.M.A. Pai judgment had unequivocally stated that the unit for determining minority status is the State. He said religious and linguistic minorities for the purposes of Articles 29 and 30 of the Constitution should be determined State-wise after countenancing the numeric proportions of various communities in each State.

“Denial of minority rights to real minorities and arbitrary/unreasonable disbursement of minority benefits to the majority, infringes upon fundamental right to prohibition of discrimination,” the petition said.