Plea Seeking Minority Status For Hindus In Some States : Daily Current Affairs

Date: 01/09/2022

Relevance: GS-2: Statutory, regulatory and various quasi-judicial bodies; Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.

Key Phrases: National Commission for Minorities Act 1992, TMA Pai Case, National Commission for Minority Education Institution, District-Wise Identification of Minorities, Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities, Minority Status for Hindus

Why in News?

The Supreme Court has recently deferred the plea hearing seeking minority status for Hindus in States where they are numerically less in number.

What is the case?

A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court which challenges Section 2(C) of the National Commission for Minorities Act (NCM), 1992 which gives power to the Centre to notify minorities at the national level.
The petition has highlighted the SC decision in the landmark 2002 TMA Pai case in which the SC laid down that for the purposes of Article 30 which deals with the rights of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions, religious and linguistic minorities will have to be identified at the state level.
The validity of Section 2(f) of the National Commission for Minority Education Institution (NCMEI)Act 2004 has also been challenged for giving unrestrained power to the Centre and being manifestly arbitrary, irrational and offensive.

What does the plea seek in the case?

The plea wants district-wise identification of minorities and state-wise status.
It has demanded issuing of guidelines by the centre to identify minority communities at the state level to ensure that only those religious and linguistic groups which are socially, economically, politically non-dominant and numerically inferior, can establish and administer educational institutions of their choice in the spirit of the TMA Pai Ruling.
The plea has requested the Centre to lay down guidelines for the identification of minorities at the state level contending that the Hindus are not able to avail the benefits of schemes meant for minorities.

Which states have Hindus in the minority?

According to the report, there are just 1% of Hindus in Ladakh, 2.5% in Mizoram, 2.7% in Lakshadweep, 4% in Jammu and Kashmir, 8.74% in Nagaland, 11.52% in Meghalaya, 29% in Arunachal Pradesh, 38.49% in Punjab, and 41.29% in Manipur.
The followers of Judaism, Bahaism, and Hinduism who are real minorities in these 10 states cannot establish and administer educational institutions of their choice because of the non-identification of minorities at the state level, thus jeopardising their basic rights guaranteed under Articles 29 and 30.
The plea contended that their right under Articles 29-30 is being siphoned off illegally to the majority community in the state because the Centre has not notified them as `minority` under the NCM Act.

Who is a minority in India?

There are six minority communities in India.
Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Jains and Zoroastrians (Parsis) have been notified as minority communities under Section 2 (c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992.
The NCMEI Act entitles the six communities notified under the NCM Act to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice which declares Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Parsis, Sikhs and Jains as minorities at the national level.

Who decides the status of minorities in India?

Primarily, the central government notifies the minority status under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992.
Only those communities notified under Section 2(c) of the above act are regarded as minority citizens.
Constitutional provisions of India principally provide for a linguistic or cultural minority.
States generally don’t have their separate lists of minority communities but there are exceptions.
Maharashtra is an example that had notified ‘Jews’ as a minority community within Maharashtra in July 2016.
The subject of identification of the minority community is on the Concurrent List.
Thus, both the Centre and the state governments can have separate lists of the minority communities.

What are the various provisions in the Constitution related to minority communities?

Certain Articles of the Constitution do provide protection to and specify safeguards for the minority communities but without defining the word ‘minority’.
Articles 29 and 30 of the constitution provide for the “protection of interests of minorities” and give the minority communities the right “to establish and administer educational institutions”.
Such minority communities could be identified with their language, script or culture, and cannot be discriminated against “on grounds only of religion, race, caste, language or any of them”.
Thus, the constitutional provisions indicate that a minority community in India is to be principally linguistic or cultural.
This explains why the Karnataka government has notified Urdu, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, Tulu, Lamani (Lambadi), Hindi, Konkani and Gujarati languages as the minority languages within the state.
Article 350-A of the Indian Constitution tasks the President of India to appoint “a Special Officer for linguistic minorities”.

What is the government’s stand on the issue?

The government has acknowledged that the issue posed in the petition has far-reaching implications throughout the nation and that, as a result, any position taken without detailed deliberation with stakeholders may result in an unforeseen complication for the country.
The earlier affidavit has stated that, while the central government has the authority to notify minorities, the Centre’s position on the concerns raised by the petition will be finalized after extensive consultation with state governments and other stakeholders.
During this period, the government is expected to hold consultations with States/UTs and other stakeholders before it formulates its position on whether Hindus can be declared a minority where they have been outnumbered by other communities.

Source: Live-Mint

Mains Question:

Q. What are the various constitutional provisions related to minorities in India? Highlight the various interventions made by the government to protect minority rights in India.(250 words).