A day after being approached by the government on a plea seeking minority status for Hindus in Indian states where their numbers have dropped, the country’s apex court asked it to take different stands on the appeal.
A bench of Justices SK Kaul and MM Sundresh came up with the order on Tuesday in response to a fresh affidavit filed by the federal government in connection with the petition on Monday, according to media reports.
In the new affidavit, the Ministry of Minority Affairs said that the matter has “far-reaching ramifications” and so it needed to consult the state governments.
“Any stand taken without detailed deliberations with the stakeholders may result in an unintended complication for the country,” the ministry said.
However, in its previous affidavit filed on March 25, the ministry had cited the Supreme Court’s verdict in the 2003 TMA Pai case, saying that states too are empowered to declare a community as a minority.
In the 2003 judgement, the Supreme Court had also held that minorities have to be considered state-wise in order to abide by Article 30 of the Indian Constitution, which provides minorities with the right to establish educational institutes.
On Tuesday, the court said that the government should have held consultations with state governments before filing the new affidavit.
“What I am unable to understand is the union of India is not able to decide what to do,” the bench said. “All this thought should have been given before.”
The court also said that matter of giving minority status to Hindus needs to be resolved.
“If the Centre (federal government) wants to consult with the states, we will have to take a call,” the bench observed, reported PTI. “You decide what you want to do. If you want to consult them, do it. Who is stopping you from doing so?”
The bench also told Solicitor General Mehta that the Centre needs to be more careful while filing affidavits, Live Law reported.
The bench then directed the government to file a status report in August after consulting the states.
The matter has been posted for hearing on August 30.
On January 7, the Supreme Court had granted a “last opportunity” to the federal government to reply to a petition filed by lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, seeking guidelines for identifying minorities at the state level.
In a public interest litigation, Upadhyay has stated that Hindus are a minority in 10 states and Union Territories (UTs), but they cannot avail themselves of schemes.
Though Upadhyay’s present petition was filed in 2020, he had first approached the top court with the demand for minority status for Hindus in 2017, only to be sent to the National Commission For Minorities, which said only the government could grant the relief he was seeking.
Upadhyay’s plea has relied on the 2011 Census according to which Hindus are a minority in Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Jammu and Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Punjab. He contended that accordingly the community should be given minority status in these states and UTs as per the T M A Pai ruling, in which the court said that for the purposes of Article 30 – which deals with the rights of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions – religious and linguistic minorities have to be considered state-wise.
The lawyer had first moved the Supreme Court in 2017, praying for appropriate guidelines for the identification of minorities and for quashing the central notification issued under Section 2(c) of the National Minorities Commission (NCM) Act declaring Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis as “minority” community. He said that Jains were also added to the list in 2014, but not the Hindus despite them being a minority in some states and UTs.