High Court Issues Notice To Assam Govt In Plea Challenging Socio-Economic Survey Of 'Indigenous Muslims' For Implementing 'Welfare Schemes'

The Gauhati High Court on Monday issued notice to the Assam Government in a PIL challenging the Recommendations of the Sub-Committee on 'Cultural Identity of Indigenous Assamese Muslims' and the Cabinet decision to conduct a socio-economic survey of the five sub-groups (Syed, Goriya, Moriya, Deshi and Julha) which are identified as the indigenous Assamese speaking Muslims by the Sub-Committee.

The division bench of Acting Chief Justice Lanusungkum Jamir and Justice Kardak Ete observed:

“Keeping the issue of maintainability open, issue notice. Mr. D. K. Sharma, learned Addl. Senior Govt. Advocate appears for the sole respondent. List the matter after 4(four) weeks. The prayer for interim shall be considered on the next returnable date.”

In the plea, the petitioner submitted that the Assam Government in July 2021 constituted a Cabinet Sub-Committee to identify the indigenous Assamese-speaking Muslims to uplift their socio-economic status by way of implementing some special schemes for them.

It was further submitted that the Cabinet Sub-Committee has identified five sub-groups of Muslims as the indigenous Assamese-speaking Muslims who are residing in the Brahmaputra valley. It was stated that on December 8, 2023, the Assam Government has decided in its Cabinet meeting to conduct a socio-economic survey of the abovementioned identified five sub-groups of indigenous Muslims to uplift their status.

The petitioner has challenged the said Cabinet decision as well as the recommendations of the Cabinet Sub-Committee on three grounds:

1. It is discriminatory in nature.
2. It is illegal.
3. It is unconstitutional.

It is to be noted that the Report of the Sub-Committee on 'Cultural Identity of Indigenous Assamese Muslims' under the Chairmanship of Wasbir Hussain has noted that the Muslim population in Assam can be divided into two broad categories- the indigenous Assamese-speaking Muslims and Bengali-speaking Muslims.

The petitioner contended that this classification is discriminatory against the Muslims residing in Barak Valley.

The Counsel appearing for the State contested the maintainability of the PIL on the following grounds. It was submitted that the Sub-Committee has not been added as the respondent in the PIL, and that the other identified groups in the Sub-Committee report have not been added as party respondents.

It was further argued that this is a policy decision of the government based on a report which says that they have taken written statements from all the groups of the Muslim community residing in the State of Assam.

The petitioner contended that he is not challenging the status of the five groups, instead, his submission is that the Muslim population of Barak Valley shall also be included as indigenous Muslims in the survey.

It was further submitted by the petitioner that the recommendations of the Sub-Committee are unconstitutional on the ground that ethnicity cannot be tagged to religion and based on religion, no welfare policy can be implemented for the upliftment of a particular group.

The matter is listed after four weeks.

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