The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a petition which sought a minority status for Hindus in 8 states of the country.
This petition was recently filed in the apex court by Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay whose PIL sought that Hindus be given a minority status in, Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Jammu and Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Punjab.
As per Upadhyay who is also a Delhi BJP leader, the Hindus were being treated as a majority in those states, despite being in the minority and as a result were being deprived of the resulting facilities.
A check of the demographics as per the 2011 census reveals that, there are a total of, 2.77% Hindus in Lakshadweep, 2.75% Hindus in Mizoram, 8.75% Hindus in Nagaland, 11.53% Hindus in Meghalaya, 28.44% Hindus in Jammu & Kashmir, 29.04% Hindus in Arunachal Pradesh, 38.49% Hindus in Punjab and 41.39% Hindus in Manipur.
Out of these 8 states, 4 states have a Christian majority, two have a Muslim majority, one has a Sikh majority. Manipur has a threadbare Hindu majority by only 0.10% since the Hindu population is 41.39% and the Christian population is 41.29%.
Advocate Upadhyay also stated that the Central government offered 20,000 scholarships to minority students, in the field of technical education. In Jammu & Kashmir even though there are 68.30% Muslims, 717 out of 753 scholarships still went to Muslims and none went to a Hindu as a 1993 notification declares Muslims as a minority and not Hindus.
The petition also alleged that the minority rights of Hindus in those 8 states are being siphoned off as neither the Centre or State governments have notified Hindus as minorities under Section 2(c) of National Commission for Minority Act. Which as per the petition deprived Hindus of their basic rights which are guaranteed under article 25 to 30.
Till date, 6 communities namely Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis and Jains are notified as minority communities.
The Supreme Court though didn’t entertain Upadhyay’s plea and in-turn asked him to approach the National Minorities Commission. As per the bench headed by Justice Ranjan Gogoi, they cannot issue such orders and the minority commission is the most competent body.
The appearing advocate though had argued that the Minority Commission only dealt with national level decisions and did not look into state level demands, hence the Supreme Court could decide. This, unfortunately, failed to cut ice with the court.