'I Will Look At This Without Any Bias': AG Tells Supreme Court On Plea Seeking District-Wise Identification Of Minorities

The Attorney General for India Senior Advocate R Venkataramani, while appearing for Centre in a batch of petitions seeking district-wise identification of minorities before the Supreme Court of India on Tuesday, informed the bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Abhay S. Oka and JB Pardiwala that he was part of a committee headed by Prof. N.R. Madhava Menon for the Equal Opportunities Commission as an Expert Member.

"I was also a part of the committee headed by Prof. Menon..My secretary asked me if my presence in the current matter would be a conflict of interest...I thought about it and said that it wouldn't be so. I will also look at this all over again without bias", AG said.

It is important to point out that the NR Madhava Menon Committee was constituted to examine and determine the structure and functions of an Equal Opportunity Commission Set up by the Ministry of Minority Affairs, Government of India in February, 2008 

The Menon Committee Report (2008) had proposed an Equal Opportunity Commission Bill to prohibit discrimination against ‘deprived groups’ defined on the grounds such as sex, disability, religion, caste, language etc.

The Committee Report had recommended the structure, scope, and functions of the proposed Equal Opportunity Commission, and had advised on an appropriate legislative foundation for its implementation.

The report had also proposed for an Equal Opportunity Commission Bill, 2008 to constitute an Equal Opportunity Commission.

The proposed Bill aimed to address discrimination or any distinction, exclusion, or restriction made on the basis of sex, caste, language, religion, descent, place of birth, residence, disability, descent, place of birth, residence, race, or any other unjustified criteria.

The model for the Equal Opportunity Commission, as was proposed by the Menon Committee, represented a Commission to supplement reservations.

The Menon Committee Report had also observed that Reservations or ‘removal of disabilities’ do not warrant any equality of opportunities. Hence, the Equal Opportunity Commission was meant for the deprived groups to access their rights and entitlements, and to address inter-group inequalities, as a move beyond the existing policies on reservations.

The Equal Opportunity Commission Bill, 2008, as proposed and prepared by the Menon Committee, was approved by the Union Cabinet in February 2014, however, has not been taken up by the Parliament ever since. 

The current Attorney General for India, Senior Advocate R Venkataramani was an Expert Member of the Committee.

For separate report on the case hearing, refer here.

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