MINORITY VS MAJORITY

The centre has said that states too have the power to declare communities as “minority". This affidavit was in response to a petition which said Hindus were a minority in some states

- Shivam Sharma

THE government on March 28 apprised the Supreme Court that the followers of Hinduism, Judaism and Bahai, who are minorities in certain states, can be declared as such by the concerned state government.

Submitting an affidavit before the Court, the centre said the allegation that these communities cannot establish and administer educational institutions of their choice in places where they are in minority like in Ladakh, Mizoram, Lakshadweep, Kashmir, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, and Manipur is not correct.

The affidavit was filed in response to a petition by BJP leader and Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, seeking a declaration that the followers of these faiths can establish and administer educational institutions of their choice in these places in the spirit of the TMA Pai ruling. The plea further sought a declaration that Section 2(f) of the National Commission for Minority Education Institution Act 2004, is arbitrary, irrational, and offends Articles 14, 15, 21, 29, and 30 of the Constitution since it confers unbridled powers on the central government to declare a community as “minority".

The petitioner submitted that followers of Judaism, Bahaism, and Hin sm, who are real minorities in Ladakh, Mizoram, Lakshadweep, Kashmir, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab, and Manipur cannot establish and administer educational institutions of their choice because of non-identification of “minority" at the state level. This, he said, jeopardises their basic rights guaranteed under Articles 29-30, which is being siphoned off illegally to the majority community in that state because the center had not notified them of “minority" under the NCMEI Act.