Relevance: GS-2: Indian Constitution—Historical Underpinnings, Evolution, Features, Statutory, Regulatory and various Quasi-Judicial Bodies.

Key Phrases: National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, Ministry of Minority Affairs, Articles 29 and 30, religious, linguistic, Article 350(A).

Why in News?

• A plea has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking minority status for Hindus in Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab, Lakshadweep, Ladakh, Kashmir etc.
• The Government of India' has filed an affidavit on Hindus as a minority in some states and Union Territories is consistent with the Constitution and Supreme Court judgments.
• In this affidavit, govt. has also explained that who is a minority, and how minorities are defined in the Constitution.
• The affidavit also says that Hindus can be declared a minority in a few states, and avail minority welfare schemes under Articles 38 and 46.

About Minorities:

• Minorities appears at four places in the Constitution - in the headnotes of Articles 29 and 30, and clauses (1) and (2) of Article 30.
• Constitution of India has not defined word ‘Minority’ and only refers to ‘Minorities’.
• It speaks of minorities ‘based on religion or language’ and rights of minorities have been spelt out in Constitution in detail.
• Six religious communities, viz. Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Zoroastrians (Parsis) and Jains have been notified in Gazette of India as minority communities by Union Government all over India.
• The Constitution talks of only religious and linguistic minorities. It does not recognize sexual minorities such as LGBTQ+.
• Also, the Supreme Court has accepted only the numerical inferiority test, i.e., less than 50% in a state’s population, for a group to be recognized as a minority under Article 30(1).

Constitutional Provision Related to Minorities in India-

• Article 29: “Protection of interests of minorities”
  • Any section of the citizens residing in the territory of India or any part thereof having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same”, and that “no citizen shall be denied admission into any educational institution maintained by the State or receiving aid out of State funds on grounds only of religion, race, caste, language or any of them.
• Article 30: “Right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions”
  • All minorities, whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.
  • It says that “in making any law providing for the compulsory acquisition of any property of an educational institution established and administered by a minority…, the State shall ensure that the amount fixed by or determined under such law for the acquisition of such property is such as would not restrict or abrogate the right guaranteed under that clause”, and that “the state shall not, in granting aid to educational institutions, discriminate against any educational institution on the ground that it is under the management of a minority, whether based on religion or language”.
• Article 350(A): There shall be a Special Officer for linguistic minorities to be appointed by the President.
  • It shall be the duty of the Special Officer to investigate all matters relating to the safeguards provided for linguistic minorities under this Constitution and report to the President upon those matters at such intervals as the President may direct, and the President shall cause all such reports to be laid before each House of Parliament, and sent to the Governments of the States concerned.

National Commission for Minorities (NCM)

• It is a statutory body set up under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992.
• NCM consists of a Chairperson, a Vice-Chairperson and five members and all of them shall be from amongst the minority communities.
• Total of 7 persons to be nominated by the Central Government should be from amongst persons of eminence, ability and integrity.
• Tenure: Each Member holds office for a period of three years from the date of assumption of office.
• It works under the Ministry of Minority Affairs, and before the formation of this ministry it came under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.
• It looks into complaints from members of five religious communities — Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Zoroastrians (Parsis). Jain community was notified as a minority community in 2014.

Landmark Judgements:

• ‘Re: The Kerala Education Bill’ (1958)
  • A seven-judge bench explicitly rejected districts as a unit to determine the minority status of a group within the state of Kerala.
  • The apex court took the “state” as a unit to determine the minority status of groups claiming themselves as minorities.
• ‘TMA Pai Foundation’ (2003)
  • The 11-judge bench laid down that in the absence of any special definition of “minorities”, any community, religious or linguistic, which is numerically less than 50 per cent of the population of a state is entitled to the protection of minority rights.

Sources: Times of India  Indian Express

Mains Question:

Q. Recently central govt. filed an affidavit in supreme Court for grant of minority status to Hindus. In this context explain who are considered as minorities and discuss the constitutional provisions related to them and the landmark judgements given by the apex court?