Center told Supreme Court power to notify minorities rests with Union government
New Delhi:
The Center informed the Supreme Court on Monday that the power to notify minorities rests with the Union government and that a decision will be made after consultation with states and other stakeholders.
The Supreme Court had previously given the Center four weeks to respond to a plea asking for guidelines on how to draw up state-level minority identification guidelines, arguing that Hindus are minority in 10 states.
In an affidavit filed in response to a plea filed by attorney Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, the Ministry of Minorities Affairs said the central government has registered six communities as minority communities under Section 2C of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992.
“It is argued that the issue involved in the subpoena has far-reaching implications for the entire country and therefore any position taken without detailed consultation with stakeholders could lead to an unintended complication for the country.”
While the central government has the power to notify minorities, the position to be formulated by the central government on the issues raised in this group of petitions will be finalized after wide consultation with state governments and other stakeholders.
The ministry said this will ensure that the central government is able to present an informed position to the Supreme Court, taking into account various social, logical and other aspects, in order to avoid unintended complications in the future regarding such matters. prevent a vital issue.
The Supreme Court placed the case in court today (May 10) and asked the Union of India to record its position on a plea filed by lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay.
The Ministry of Minorities Affairs had previously told the Supreme Court that state governments can declare any religious or linguistic community, including Hindus, a minority within the said state.
The ministry had also stated that matters pertaining to whether adherents of Hinduism, Judaism and Bahaism in the said states can establish and manage educational institutions of their choice, and those related to their identification as a minority within the state, can be considered at the state level.
Mr. Upadhyay had challenged the validity of Section 2(f) of the National Commission for Minority Education Institution Act, 2004, claiming it would give the Center unfettered power, calling it “manifestly arbitrary, irrational and abusive”.
Section 2(f) of the Act empowers the Center to identify and notify minority communities in India.
The plea, filed by attorney Ashwani Kumar Dubey, said denying benefits to the “real” minorities and “arbitrary and unreasonable” payouts to the absolute majority under schemes intended for them violate their fundamental rights.
“Alternatively, order and declare that followers of Judaism, Bahaism and Hinduism, who are minorities in Ladakh, Mizoram, Lakshadweep, Kashmir, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab and Manipur, may establish and administer educational institutions of their country . choice in the spirit of the TMA Pai Ruling,” the plea said.
The Supreme Court in the TMA Pai Foundation case had ruled that the state is well within its right to introduce a regulatory regime in the national interest to provide minority educational institutions with well-qualified teachers so that they can achieve excellence in education. .
Referring to Article 30 of the Constitution, the plea stated that minorities, whether based on religion or language, have the right to establish and manage educational institutions of their choice.
The petition stated that denial of minority rights to actual religious and linguistic minorities is a violation of the rights of minorities enshrined in Articles 14 and 21 (no person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except in accordance with the procedure established by law) of the Constitution.
The Supreme Court had previously admitted a plea for transfer of cases from several high courts to the General Court against the Center’s notification to declare five communities – Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis – as minorities and called the case the main petition.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.)
