States can declare a religious or linguistic community as a minority: Centre tells SC
State governments can declare any religious or linguistic community, including Hindus, as a minority within the said state, the centre has told the Supreme Court.
The submission was made in response to a plea filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay that sought directions for framing of guidelines identifying minorities at the state level, contending that Hindus are in a minority in 10 states and are not able to avail the benefits of schemes meant for minorities.
The Ministry of Minority Affairs submitted that matters concerning whether followers of Hinduism, Judaism, Bahaism can establish and administer educational institutions of their choice in the said states and those related to their identification as minority within the state may be considered at state level.
Upadhyay had challenged the validity of section 2(f) of the National Commission for Minority Education Institution Act, 2004 alleging that it gives unbridled power to the Centre and termed it “manifestly arbitrary, irrational, and offending”.
Section 2(f) of NCMEI Act empowers the Centre to identify and notify minority communities in India.
The Ministry of Minority Affairs in its response said: “It is submitted that the State governments can also declare a religious or linguistic community as a minority community within the said state.” “For instance, the Maharashtra government has notified ‘Jews’ as a minority community within the state. Moreover, the Karnataka government has notified Urdu, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, Tulu, Lamani, Hindi, Konkani and Gujarati languages as minority languages within the state of Karnataka,” it said.