The Supreme Court on Monday pulled up the Centre for not taking a stand on a plea seeking that minority status of a community be decided at state level and not at the national level and imposed a fine of Rs 7,500.
A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and M M Sundresh pointed out that the court had on January 7 granted one last chance to the Centre to file an affidavit but the government again failed to take a stand on the issue.
Additional solicitor general KM Nataraj submitted that the draft of the affidavit is ready and there was delay in filing because of the pandemic. But the bench was not convinced and quipped, "Don't make excuses which we find very difficult to accept." The court said the government has to take a stand on the issue and granted it the last opportunity to file an affidavit within four weeks.
"We grant one further opportunity of four weeks to file the counter affidavit subject to deposit of cost of Rs 7,500 to SCBA (Supreme Court Bar Association) Advocates' Welfare Fund as requested by the senior counsel for the petitioner," it said.
The proceedings had an element of irony to it as the court was hearing a petition filed by BJP member Ashwini Upadhyay seeking that a community should be declared as a religious and linguistic minority on the basis of its population in a state to allow it to run institutions of its choice.
His petition also challenges the validity of Section 2(f) of the National Commission for Minority Education Institution Act for giving power to the Centre to declare minority community echoes the agony of many on the Hindutva side of the spectrum, who hold that the current scheme of determining "minority" status on the basis of countrywide head count is inimical to the interests of Hindus in states where they are in a minority.
He said Hindus are in minority in 10 states while Muslim and Christians, which have been declared minority communities, are in majority in many states. "Muslims are in majority in Lakshdweep (96.58%) and Kashmir (96%). Christians are majority in Nagaland (88.10%) and Mizoram (87.16%) and Meghalaya (74.59%)," it said. "Hindus are merely 1% in Laddakh, 2.75% in Mizoram, 2.77% in Lakshdweep, 4% in Kashmir and 8.74% in Nagaland...," it added.
(With inputs from agencies)