Another public interest litigation has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking cancellation of Section 2C of the National Minority Commission Act, 1992.
The petitioner, Chandrashekhar, sought quashing of Section 2C claiming it was unconstitutional and violated Articles 14, 15, 21, 29 and 30 of the Constitution.
Apart from this, the petition said the notification issued by the Ministry of Welfare for the minority community on October 23, 1993 was irrational, unconstitutional and violates Articles 14, 15, 21, 29, 30 of the Constitution and sought its cancellation.
Due to this, only those religious and linguistic groups who are less in number, will be given the status of minorities as per 1992 law, the petition also said.
The petitioner prayed to the Supreme Court to issue directions to define the minorities at the district level from the Government, the identification of minorities at the district level is determined for the benefits acrued to them.
The petitioner’s advocate said it has been said that there are nine states in the country in which there are non-Muslim minorities but they have not been declared minorities under Section 2C of the National Commission for Minorities, 1992. Whereas Muslims have been declared a minority under this. Due to which minority communities are not getting the due attention, the advocate also said.
The Section in question lists five religious communities: Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis as minority communities.
The petitioner claimed that the Section 2C of the law is a harm to the followers of Judaism, Bahaism, and Hinduism.
The petitioner questioned that Hindus make up only 1% of the population in Ladakh, 2.75% in Mizoram, 2.77% in Lakshdweep, 4% in Kashmir, 8.74% in Nagaland, 11.52% in Meghalaya, 29% in Arunachal Pradesh, 38.49% in Punjab, and 41.29% in Manipur, but the Centre has not declared them a minority and are not protected under Articles 29-30 of the Constitution.
On the other hand, the Centre has unilaterally labelled Muslims a minority, despite the fact that Muslims make up 96.58% of the population in Lakshdweep, 95% in Kashmir, and 46% in Ladakh. Similarly, the Centre has designated Christians as a minority in Nagaland, where they account for 88.10% of the population, 87.16% in Mizoram and 74.59% in Meghalaya, the petitioner further said.