SC to hear identification of minorities at state level

Subject : Polity

Section: Constitution

Concept :

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday a batch of pleas seeking the identification of minorities at the state level.
A bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Ahsanuddin Amanullah will take up for hearing the petitions raising various issues related to the identifiation of minorities, including challenging the constitutional validity of the National Minority Commission Act, 1992 and the National Commission for Minorities Educational Institutes Act, 2004.
The pleas include the one filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay who has sought directions for framing guidelines for the identification of minorities at the state level, contending that Hindus are in minority in 10 states.

How is a community notified as a minority?

Under Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act of 1992 central government has the power to notify a community as a minority

Notified Minorities in India

Currently, only those communities notified under section 2(c) of the NCM Act, 1992, by the central government are regarded as minority.
In 1993, the first Statutory National Commission was set up and five religious communities viz. The Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis) were notified as minority communities.
In 2014, Jains were also notified as a minority community.

Constitutional Provisions for Minorities

Article 29

It provides that any section of the citizens residing in any part of India having a distinct language, script or culture of its own, shall have the right to conserve the same.
It grants protection to both religious minorities as well as linguistic minorities

Article 30:

All minorities shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.
The protection under Article 30 is confined only to minorities (religious or linguistic) and does not extend to any section of citizens (as under Article 29).

Article 350-B:

The 7th Constitutional (Amendment) Act 1956 inserted this article which provides for a Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities appointed by the President of India.
It would be the duty of the Special Officer to investigate all matters relating to the safeguards provided for linguistic minorities under the Constitution.

Judgements related to determination on minority status

TMA Pai Case:
The SC had said that for the purposes of Article 30 that deals with the rights of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions, religious and linguistic minorities have to be considered state-wise.
Bal Patil Case:
In 2005, the SC in its judgement in ‘Bal Patil’ referred to the TMA Pai ruling.
The legal position clarifies that henceforth the unit for determining status of both linguistic and religious minorities would be ‘state’.