How Can Minority Status Be Determined District-Wise?Supreme Court Asks Petitioner

While considering a batch of petitions seeking district-wise identification of minorities, the Supreme Court on Tuesday wondered whether it is possible to make such a determination. 

The petitioner Ashwini Upadhyay drew the attention of a bench comprising Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and AS Oka to a 2007 order of the Allahabad High Court that had asked the Uttar Pradesh government to treat all Muslim institutions applying for grant-in-aid on the same level as the non-minority institutions without any discrimination. He submitted, "For 20 districts of the state, the High Court said that given the percentage of the population, Muslims cannot be considered minorities. This was based on 2001 census. Now, we are in 2022. As per my information, the number has increased to 26 districts now." Justice SK Kaul countered, "Can minority status be determined each district-wise? Then why not each street-wise?How can this be done?"

Contending that Hindus are minorities in as many as 10 states, the petitioners have also urged the court to direct that the community be given a religious minority tag in these states. In the lead petition filed by Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, the constitutional validity of the National Commission for Minorities Act 1992 and the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act, 2004 have also been challenged.

The Court adjourned the hearing in the batch of pleas praying for the promulgation of uniform guidelines for the identification of minorities at the state-level after the Centre informed the Court that only 14 states have shared their views in the consultative process and reports are awaited from the other 19 states.

Earlier in May, the apex court had directed the central government to hold consultations with the states with respect to the issue of the identification of minorities. On Tuesday, the Bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Abhay S. Oka was informed by Additional Solicitor-General K.M. Nataraj that a "consultative process" with various state governments was underway. While 14 state governments had already furnished their responses, the stands of 19 state governments were awaited, the status report filed by the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs stated.

Deciding to take this matter up again in January, the Bench pronounced, "As per the request of the learned ASG, six weeks more time has been granted to place the stand in this respect. We call upon the 19 state governments which have not responded to communicate their stands/status to the central government within a period of four weeks of the communication of this order."

Case Title : Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay versus Union of India WRIT PETITION (C) NO. 836 OF 2020

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