Citing Maharashtra's Decision on Jews, Govt Tells SC That States Can Give Minority Status to Hindus

States can give minority status to Hindus if the community is not in a majority within their jurisdictions in order to enable them establish and administer educational institutions of their choice, in keeping with the rights guaranteed to minorities by the Constitution, the Centre has told the Supreme Court.

Responding to a PIL filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay, the Union government in an affidavit said states have also the power to declare minorities, citing the example of Maharashtra declaring “jews” as a minority in the state in 2016.

Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay had said in his PIL that even though the followers of Hinduism, Judaism and Bahaism are minorities in states and Union Territories like Jammu and Kashmir, Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Lakshadweep, Manipur and Punjab, the majority communities in these places are ‘minorities’ due to their national population percentage and end up cornering the benefits, which should accrue to the real minorities in them.

The Centre said states also have the power to declare a community as a linguistic or religious minority since the subject of identification of minority communities is in the Concurrent List of the Constitution, allowing both Centre and the states to legislate to confer minority status.

The Centre has so far declared Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis and Jains as minorities in the country.

The Centre maintained that it was for the state to consider whether these religious groups and communities could be declared minorities to allow them establish and administer educational institutions of their choice in those states.

The Centre said that, therefore, the petitioner’s argument that followers of Judaism, Bahaism and Hinduism, who are the real minorities in Ladakh, Mizoram, Lakshadweep, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Punjab, Arunachal Pradesh and Punjab, cannot exercise the rights of minorities under Article 29 and 30 “is not correct”.

Ashwini Upadhyay on Monday questioned the ” need for a ministry for minorities”, saying that there’s already a social justice ministry meant for everyone. “When we already have a social justiced ministry meant for everyone then what is the need to have a separate ministry for minority welfare on the basis of religion?” he said.

Read all the Latest News India and Breaking News here