New DelhiThe Center on Thursday informed the Supreme Court that it has received mixed responses from 24 states and six Union Territories (UTs) on the question of whether minorities should be notified at the state or national level. The information was filed as part of an affidavit detailing the stand taken by these states and union territories in response to a pending public interest litigation (PIL).
The PIL, filed in 2020, has sought directions to implement the 2002 TMA Pai Foundation v. State of Karnataka. ruling by the Supreme Court, which held that under Article 30 of the Constitution – which deals with the rights of minorities to establish and administer minority institutions – religious and linguistic minorities have to be recognized at the state level.
The TMA Pai judgment was a landmark order by 11 judges, which set the framework for government regulations on private institutions.
The PIL states, “Due to non-compliance of this judgment, Hindus have been prevented from availing minority rights in those states where their numbers are small.” The Center is not empowered to notify minorities under the National Commission for Minorities Act. 1992”.
According to the central government, three major BJP-ruled states, Gujarat, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh, want the current system of identifying and notifying minorities at the national level to continue, while Assam and Uttarakhand have argued that the identification of minorities The unit should be the state, as it was organized in the TMA Pai regime.
Delhi is the only state to have mooted the idea of a separate category of “migrating minority status” that would be given to Hindus who are a minority in their state of origin but are now living in the capital after migration, according to the central government. affidavit.
The Union Territories have not taken any stand and have replied that since they do not have an elected legislature, they will go by the stand taken by it. Puducherry, however, maintained that Hindus are the majority and it does not have any followers of Judaism or the Baha’i faith.
The Central Government received responses from the States during the consultations held over the last two months to know their views on the PIL.
Four states, Arunachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Jharkhand, and two union territories, Jammu and Kashmir and Lakshadweep, are yet to take a stand on the issue.
So far, the Ministry of Minority Affairs has filed a counter-affidavit in the matter and accused the states of giving minority status to Hindus even as they have the power to declare a group as a minority.
However, after filing the affidavit, the central government is taking time in filing a consolidated response to the PIL, claiming that it needs to consult the states and other departments of the central government on the matter.
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with the federal government
Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka have supported the current process of identifying minorities, in their opinion to the central government, in which it issues a national list. Gujarat said it was “comfortable” with it, while MP said it would “follow up”.
Karnataka preferred “status quo” on the matter and said that like the central government, it too has declared Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Jains and Parsis as minority communities. This was done following the recommendation of the State Minorities Commission.
While Uttar Pradesh has offered to follow the constitutional process “whatever the central government decides” regarding the identification of minorities, Maharashtra, where the BJP is in alliance with the Shiv Sena, has left the power to notify minorities with the central government. Prefered to be implicit “in the interest of uniformity”.
Maharashtra, however, said that “the central government may use the census data and notify the minority communities in the concerned state in consultation with the states”. The state further noted that it had already notified six communities as religious minorities and those whose language is not Marathi are considered linguistic minorities.
But Manipur, where again the BJP is part of a coalition government, has supported the state as the unit for determining religious minorities. It states that “any religious group which constitutes less than 50% of the population of the State shall be recognized as a religious minority group of the State”. According to its response, followers of the Meitei Sanmahi religion should be considered for recognition as a religious minority group in the state.
BJP ruled Goa and Tripura have not given any views and only stated the factual position in their states. The Tripura government said that Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Sikhs and Jains are minorities in the state and that “in Tripura, minority communities lag behind in education, social sector, business and government services. The economic condition in some areas is not at par with that of the majority”. And it needs improvement.” The Government of Goa provided the percentage of population of minorities, Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and Buddhists in the state.
Among non-BJP ruled states, Punjab, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu do not want recognition of minorities at the national level.
state call
“In India, different communities are in majority or minority depending on their population in different provinces/states. Therefore, it becomes necessary to protect the interests of the concerned minority housing industry as per the constitutional provisions,” Punjab has said in its response to the central government.
It added: “Keeping in view the above as well as the peculiar geographical and social scenario of the State of Punjab, only the State Government is in a position to better appreciate the interests, well-being and problems of different classes/communities. State. The State of Punjab is being empowered to enact and notify… It is important that the State continues to do so to provide safeguards to minorities and protect their interests.”
Under the Punjab State Commission for Minorities Act, 2012, the State has already announced Jains to be a minority community in the state in April 2013.
While Himachal Pradesh is fine with recognizing minorities at the national level, Andhra Pradesh said it should be done at the state level.
For West Bengal, the state has the Minorities Commission Act, 1996, under which it has declared Hindi, Urdu, Nepali, Oriya, Santali and Gurmukhi speakers as linguistic minorities and Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Parsis and Jains as religious minorities . Minority. “The power to declare a community as a minority should rest with the State Government/Union Territories,” it opined.
Tamil Nadu also said that according to the TMA Pai judgment the state should be a minority recognition entity. But it also cautioned about the “potentially adverse consequences of promoting the demand for minority status on the basis of religion”. It states that this was also mentioned in a Supreme Court judgment given in 2005.
Tamil Nadu further stated that religious minority status “cannot be granted only on the basis of population in a particular State, but also taking into account factors such as actual or potential deprivation of religious, cultural and educational rights and their socio-economic status”. Affecting policies at the national level should be assessed from their overall position as policies and issues touching these aspects are often national in nature.
In response, the AAP government in Delhi informed about the religious minority status given to followers of Judaism and Baha’i religion and said that “it would have no objection if the central government declares them (minority)”. It further called for creating a category of “migrant minority status” for followers of Hinduism who are religious minorities in their native state like Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh etc. and are living in Delhi due to migration from their home state.
Kerala favored continuation of the existing provisions under the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act, 2004 and the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992 “until the Hon’ble Supreme Court takes a different view in the matter”.
Odisha pointed out that the six communities notified by the Center are also minorities in the state and said that as far as it is concerned, “there is no justification to remove any of these 6 minority communities from the list nor any other community There is any justification for declaring it a minority.” a minority community”.
(Editing by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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