Minority Tag for Hindus

Minority Tag for Hindus

Subject: Polity

Section: Rights

Context: The Union government is yet to file its counter affidavit in the SC in a petition which has raised the politically sensitive prayer to identify minorities at the state level as laid down in the 2002 TMA Pai case and grant minority status to Hindus in states where their numbers are lesser.

Background:

• 1993 Government notification issued under Section 2(c) of the National Minorities Commission (NCM) Act declared Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis as ‘minority’. Jains were also added to the list in 2014.
• A petition was moved by an advocate Ashwini Upadhyay in the SC in 2017 which said Hindus, though they are minority in six states (Punjab, Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh) and two UTs (J & K, Lakshadweep), as per 2011 Census were not added in the list.
• The SC asked him to approach the NCM which took the stand that it “does not have the jurisdiction to deal with the prayer…”and that under Section 2(c) of the NCM Act, only the centre can declare a community as a ‘minority’.
• The petitioner contended that minority status should be on the basis of state wise population and decision must be made at the state level and not at the national level because this is not letting the Hindus to avail welfare schemes meant for minorities in these states.
• However, the Supreme Court ruled that languages are restricted state wise but religion is beyond all borders, especially political borders. Thus, religion needs to be considered on a pan-India basis and not state-wise.
• The case was again moved in 2019 by the advocate but the new CJI assumed the office. So, the matter is due for listening to once more on March 28 2022.

Concept:

• Currently, the linguistic minorities are identified on a state-wise basis thus determined by the state government whereas religious minorities are determined by the Central Government.
• A linguistic minority is a group of people whose mother tongue is different from that of the majority in the state or part of a state.

To know about protection of minorities, refer: https://optimizeias.com/protection-of-minorities/ and https://optimizeias.com/national-commission-for-minorities-act-1992/