Minorities body gets 3 months to define what minority is now

In a direction that could have far-reaching significance, the Supreme Court on Monday directed the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) to decide on a lawyer's resolution to redefine the term 'minority' based on their state-wise numbers. The court gave the Commission three months time to decide on the issue.

The direction came from a bench of Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Sanjiv Khanna on a petition filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay. The petitioner had represented his case to the NCM on November 17, 2017 but has received no response. This had happened after the apex court had asked him to first lodge a representation to the concerned authority. Upset over not getting any response, Upadhyay informed the bench that his petition needs to be heard finally.

The bench, however, directed the NCM to give a decision on the representation within three months. According to Upadhyay, the term minority must be freshly considered in the context of population of a community in a state, instead of declaring a community as minority throughout the country. His emphasis was on states like Jammu and Kashmir and Punjab. In J&K Muslims are in majority while Sikhs are in majority in Punjab, although both these communities are categorised as minorities.

In this connection, the petition further pointed out that Hindus, though a majority must be considered a minority in seven states and one Union Territory where their number is very less, as per Census 2011. These are Mizoram (2.75 percent), Nagaland (8.75 percent), Meghalaya (11.53 percent), J&K (28.44 percent), Arunachal Pradesh (29 percent), Manipur (31.39 percent), Punjab (38.40 percent) and Lakshadweep (2.5 percent).