On Tuesday, the Supreme Court docket mentioned that the difficulty of revisiting minority standing of residents based mostly on their inhabitants in states can’t be postponed additional and requested the Centre to conclude the country-wide session on this regard with states and union territories earlier than March 21.
As six states and union territories had been but to reply on this challenge, the Court docket questioned why even states dominated by the Bharatiya Janata Get together (BJP) had been maintaining silent on the difficulty whereas suggesting that if no response is forthcoming, it will likely be presumed the involved authorities don’t have anything to state.
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A bench headed by justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul mentioned, “We can’t be suspending the matter like this,” whereas referring to a number of events up to now when the consideration of the difficulty was deferred after the Centre mentioned it wanted time to finish its nationwide session.
Lawyer Common R Venkatramani knowledgeable the Court docket, “Six states and union territories haven’t given their response.” These are Arunachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Telangana and union territories of Lakshadweep and Jammu and Kashmir. “These are main states who haven’t responded. Let me come again to the Court docket after receiving their response.
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“We fail to understand why these states/UTs shouldn’t reply,” remarked the bench, additionally comprising justices AS Oka and JB Pardiwala. The Court docket gave them a final alternative to reply whereas clarifying that within the occasion they failed to take action, it shall be presumed they don’t have anything to say.” The matter will now be heard on March 21.
The order got here on a clutch of petitions together with one by Delhi BJP chief Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay who questioned the minority standing being prolonged to solely Christians, Sikhs, Muslims, Buddhists, Parsis and Jains when Hindus are a minority in a number of states and UTs.
Pointing to J&Ok, Lakshadweep and Arunachal Pradesh, administered both by Centre or by BJP authorities, the bench requested AG, “Your individual regimes will not be responding.”
Senior advocate CS Vaidyanathan, showing for Upadhyay identified that among the non-responsive states/UTs are those the place Hindus are in minority. Citing a chart within the petition, he identified that Hindus are merely 1% in Ladakh, 2.75% in Mizoram, 2.77% in Lakshadweep, 4% in Jammu & Kashmir, 8.74% in Nagaland, 11.52% in Meghalaya, 29% in Arunachal Pradesh, 38.49% in Punjab and 41.29% in Manipur.
Vaidyanathan mentioned, “The Union has filed a standing report the place it’s agreed that states needs to be the unit and never the Union (for identification of minorities).” He urged the Court docket to contemplate the matter within the mild of those findings. The petitions even challenged the validity of the 2 legal guidelines , Nationwide Fee for Minorities (NCM) Act, 1992, and the Nationwide Fee for Minorities Instructional Establishments (NCMEI) Act, 2004 for not recognizing minorities based mostly on inhabitants.
The Centre has termed the matter “delicate” and one with far-reaching ramifications and thought it match to hunt particular person views of states and UTs. Prior to now, the difficulty earlier than the highest courtroom took a number of twists and turns when the Centre filed an affidavit on March 28 final 12 months the place it advisable dismissal of the petition terming it “untenable and misconceived in regulation”. It went on to state that Parliament and state legislatures have “concurrent powers to enact regulation to offer for the safety of minorities and their pursuits”.
In Might, the Centre got here out with a recent affidavit recalling its earlier stand whereas proposing a nation-wide session as the difficulty has “far-reaching ramifications all through the nation” . The Court docket had ordered the consultations to be concluded by August 30 final 12 months however since then, the matter acquired delayed on account of a number of extensions granted to the Centre for finishing its train.