The supreme Court on Monday said it was settled position that religious and linguistic minority status of a community is to be decided statewise on the basis of state population and would be misinterpretation of justice if, say Christians who are in a majority in Mizoram and Nagaland are given minority status or Sikhs treated as a minority community in Punjab.
In March 2022, the central government told the Supreme Court that states could decide the minority status of the eligible communities within their territorial jurisdiction. This came as a response to public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Ashwini Upadhyay. A petition by Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay has contended that the 2011 census showed that Hindus have become a minority in Lakshadweep (2.5%), Mizoram (2.75%), Nagaland (8.75%), Meghalaya (11.53%), J&K (28.44%), Arunachal Pradesh (29%), Manipur (31.39%), and Punjab (38.40%), but were being denied minority benefits that are currently being enjoyed by the respective majority communities in these places.
The plea relies on the Supreme Court’s ruling in the TMA Pai Foundation case 2002 & decision in the Bal Patil case 2005.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said religious minorities should be defined district-wise in the border state. For long, there has been a perception in India that ‘Muslim’ means minority, but now this has come under challenge. Hindus too can also be a minority in a particular state depending on the geographical situation population pattern and threat perception. Government would try to be a party to the litigation in the Supreme Court on defining minority status at the state level.
Who is a minority in India?
The expression minorities appear in some Articles of the Constitution, but is not defined anywhere. The central government decides who gets the minority community status in India. It is done under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992. Currently, only those communities notified under section 2(c) of the National Minorities Commission Act, 1992, by the central government are regarded as minority.
Article 29-“any section of the citizens residing in the territory of India or any part there of having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same”, and that “no citizen shall be denied admission into any educational institution maintained by the State or receiving aid out of State funds on grounds only of religion, race, caste, language or any of them”. Article 30 which allows minorities to set up their own institutions with their own rules.
