Five NE States can consider declaring Hindus as ‘Minority’: Centre

Ministry said that both Parliament and State legislatures have concurrent powers to enact law to provide for the protection of minorities

Time8 Webdesk
March 28, 2022
8:17 pm

Guwahati: Five northeastern states can consider declaring Hindus living there as ‘minority’, the Centre informed Supreme Court. As per the Centre, the state government in nine places including five from the northeastern region may consider laying down guidelines to identify followers of Hinduism, Baha’ism and Judaism as minority communities at State–level and allow them to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.

The five northeastern states were Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur. The four other states were Ladakh, Lakshadweep, Kashmir and Punjab.

The Ministry of Minority Affairs told the apex court, “Matters like declaring that followers of Judaism, Baha’ism and Hinduism who are minorities in Ladakh, Mizoram, Lakshadweep, Kashmir, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab and Manipur can establish and administer educational institutions of their choice in the State and laying down guidelines for identification of minority at State–level may be considered by the State government concerned.”

The Centre was responding to a petition alleging that the followers of Judaism, Baha’ism and Hinduism — who are the real minorities in Ladakh, Mizoram, Lakshadweep, Kashmir, Nagaland, Meghalya, Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab and Manipur — cannot establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.

In the affidavit, the ministry said that both Parliament and State legislatures have concurrent powers to enact law to provide for the protection of minorities and their interests. While Parliament has the legislative competence, the Central government has the executive competence to notify a community as a minority under Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act of 1992.

The Central government notified six communities, namely Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis and Jains, as minorities under Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act of 1992. Similarly, Section 2(f) of the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act provides that ‘minority’ means a community notified as such by the Cente.