How does the government intend to achieve this?
The government has argued that Hindus can be notified as minorities in certain states for the purposes of Articles 29 and 30 of Constitution of India. The government further argued that the minorities are determined on the basis of the entire population of a state. It states that the Maharashtra government had notified Jews as minorities in 2016. Karnataka too notified the speakers of the languages Urdu, Marathi, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu as ‘linguistic minorities’.
So who is regarded as a minority in India?
While the term minority is mentioned at many places in the Constitution of India, it is not specifically explained as such. Article 29, which lays out the “Protection of interests of minorities”, says that “any section of the citizens residing in the territory of India or any part thereof 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”.
t present, only those communities notified under section 2(c) of the National Minorities Commission Act, 1992, by the central government are regarded as minority.
What next?
A Supreme Court bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul heard the matter on March 28. It recorded the statement of the Home Ministry in the matter. However, the court sought clarity from the government about which exact ministry should respond in the case as it was found that National Commission for Minorities and the Commission for Minority Educational Institutions come under Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and not Ministry of Home Affairs which was arrayed as the primary respondent in the case.
At present, only those communities notified under section 2(c) of the National Minorities Commission Act, 1992, by the central government are regarded as minority.
What next?
A Supreme Court bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul heard the matter on March 28. It recorded the statement of the Home Ministry in the matter. However, the court sought clarity from the government about which exact ministry should respond in the case as it was found that National Commission for Minorities and the Commission for Minority Educational Institutions come under Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) and not Ministry of Home Affairs which was arrayed as the primary respondent in the case.
