Keypoints:
- SC soughts reply on plea seeking transfer of cases to declare five communities Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsees as minorities even in those states and UTs where they are in majority.
- A bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian issued notices to Ministry of Home Affairs.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court sought authorities’s reply on plea, asking to seek transfer of cases from a number of excessive courts to it in opposition to the notification of the Centre to declare 5 communities which is the Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsees as minorities even even in these states and UTs the place where they’re in majority.
The notice was issued by a bench which comprised of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian. The notice was issued to the Ministry of dwelling affairs, ministry of regulation and justice, and ministry of minority affairs.
Delhi’s high courts, Meghalaya and Guwahati are seized of the petitions challenging the Constitutional validity of section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, under which the notification was issued on October 23, 1993.
The five communities across the country were declared as minorities by the notification, which led to a situation where majority population of Sikhs in Punjab and Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir are availing the benefits meant for minorities, the transfer petition alleged.
The apex court heard a plea filed by lawyer and BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyay which was seeking transfer of all cases from high courts to the apex court for an authoritative pronouncement on the issue.
The petition, filed through advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey, said that in order to avoid multiplicity of litigations and conflicting views, the transfer plea has been moved before the apex court.
The petition said the Hindus, who are a majority community according to national data, are a minority in several north-eastern states besides Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. The definition of minority, according to Article 29-30 of the Constitution, has left leakages in the hands of the State, which shall be misused and are being misused for political benefits, the petition said, adding that the minority status be granted to Hindus in states where the number of the community members has decreased.
The plea has sought the minority status for Hindus in six states and two Union territories, where the number of the community members has fallen according to Census 2011.
