New Delhi: State governments can declare a religious or linguistic community 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 which challenged the validity of section 2(f) of the National Commission for Minority Education Institution Act, 2004.
Upadhyay, in his plea, challenged the validity of section 2(f) alleging that it gives unbridled power to the Centre terming it “manifestly arbitrary, irrational, and offending”.
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.
“Therefore in view of the states also notifying minority communities, the petitioners’ allegation that the followers of Judaism, Bahaism, and Hinduism, who are real minorities in Ladakh, Mizoram, Lakshadweep, Kashmir, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab, and Manipur cannot establish and administer educational institutions of their choice is not correct.”
The Ministry submitted that matters concerning whether followers of Judaism, Bahaism, and Hinduism 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.
The affidavit said that the Parliament has enacted the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, under Article 246 of the Constitution read with Entry 20 in the Concurrent List in Schedule 7.
“If the view that the States alone has the power to enact law on the subject of a minority is accepted, then in such a case, Parliament will be denuded of its power to enact law on the said subject and this would be contrary to the constitutional scheme,” it said.
“The National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992 is not arbitrary or irrational and does not violate any of the provisions of the Constitution, it said.
The ministry also denied that section 2(f) of the said act confers unbridled power to the Centre.
The plea, filed through advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey, said that denial of benefits to the “real” minorities and “arbitrary and unreasonable” disbursements under schemes meant for them to the absolute majority infringes upon their fundamental right.