The Centre has told the Supreme Court that State governments could declare any religious or linguistic community, including Hindus, as a minority within the said state.
- The Centre pointed out that Maharashtra had notified Jews as a minority community in 2016 and Karnataka had notified Urdu, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, Tulu, Lamani, Hindi, Konkani and Gujarati as minority languages.
Response to affidavit
- In an affidavit filed in the apex court, the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs said “state governments can also declare a religious or linguistic community as a ‘minority community’ within the state”.
- The affidavit was filed in response to a 2020 petition by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay.
- The petitioner said that as per the 2011 Census, Hindus were a minority in Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, J&K, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Punjab and that they should be given minority status in these states in accordance with the principle laid down by the Supreme Court in its 2002 TMA Pai ruling.
TMA Pai ruling (2002)
- In the 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.
Constitutional provisions
- Article 29 says that any section of the citizens residing in the territory of India or any part thereof having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same.
- Article 30 deals with he “right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions”.
- Article 350(A) favours facilities for instruction in mother-tongue at primary stage.
- Article 350 (B) says ‘there shall be a Special Officer for linguistic minorities to be appointed by the President.’
- Under Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, the Centre had in 1993 notified five communities — Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians — as minorities. Later, in 2014, Jains were also added to the list of minorities.
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