MINORITY STATUS IN INDIA IS STATE DEPENDENT ON: SUPREME COURT

Every person in India can be a minority in one state or the other, the minority status of religious and linguist communities is state-dependent outlined by the Supreme Court.

• The court also indicated that a religious or linguistic community that is a minority in a particular state can inherently claim protection and the right to administer and run its own educational institution under Article 29 and Article 30 of the Indian constitution.
• The Union government informed the Supreme Court (SC) that state governments can now grant minority status to any religious or linguistic community, including Hindus.
  The expression “minorities” appears in some Articles of the Constitution and has not been defined properly anywhere in the constitution.
• As per the 2011 census, Hindus have become a minority in Lakshadweep (2.5%), Mizoram (2.75%), Nagaland (8.75%), Meghalaya (11.53%), J&K (28.44%), Arunachal Pradesh (29%), Manipur (31.39%), and even in Punjab (38.40%).
• A petition filed by the petitioner state that Hindus are in a ‘minority’ in six states and three Union Territories of India but were allegedly not able to avail themselves of the benefits of schemes meant for minorities

Various judgments of the Supreme Court

• TMA Pai Case: In the TMA Pai case the SC had said that for Article 30 which 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 judgment in ‘Bal Patil’ referred to the TMA Pai ruling. The legal position clarifies that henceforth the unit for determining the status of both linguistic and religious minorities would be the ‘state’.
• Section 2(f) of the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutes (NCMEI) Act 2004 confers power to the Centre to identify and notify minority communities in India which goes contrary to the various judgments of the court.

Union government’s Stand

The Centre has pointed out that Maharashtra notified Jews as a minority community in 2016 and similarly Karnataka notified Urdu, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, Tulu, Lamani, Hindi, Konkani, and Gujarati as minority languages.

• Parliament and State legislatures have concurrent powers to enact laws to provide for the protection of minorities and their interests.
• Matters such as declaring the followers of Judaism, Bahaism, and Hinduism who are minorities in Ladakh, Mizoram, Lakshadweep, Kashmir, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab, and Manipur can establish and administer educational institutions of their choice in the said state and laying down guideline(s) for t identification of minority at the state level may be considered by the concerned state governments.

Who are the minorities notified by the Government of India?

• Currently, only those communities which are notified under section 2(c) of the NCM (National Commission Of Minority) Act, 1992, by the central government are considered a minority in India.
• In 1992, with the enactment of the NCM Act, 1992, the MC (Minority Commission) became the statutory body and was renamed the NCM (National Commission of 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 India.
• In 2014, Jains were also notified as a minority community.

What are the Constitutional Provisions for the Minority?

Article 29:

Article 29 states 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.

However, the SC held that the scope of this article is not necessarily restricted to minorities only, as the use of the word ‘section of citizens’ in the Article includes minorities as well as the majority.

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.