Petition to recognise minorities at district level is contrary to law: Supreme Court
The Hindu
"There is a 11-judge Bench judgment which holds that it should be done at the State level," Justice Bhat addressed the petitioner side.
The Supreme Court on August 8 orally observed that it is "contrary to law" to identify religious and linguistic minority communities district-wise. A Bench of Justices U. U. Lalit and S. Ravindra Bhat remarked that minority status of linguistic and religious communities have to be considered State wise.
The Court was hearing a petition filed by Devkinandan Thakur Ji, a Mathura resident, claiming that Hindus do not get minority status in States where they are “socially-, economically-, politically non-dominant and numerically inferior”. The petition had also sought a declaration from the Court to identify minorities district wise.
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"Your prayer to recognise minorities at the district level is contrary to law. There is a 11-judge Bench judgment which holds that it should be done at the State level," Justice Bhat addressed the petitioner side.
The judge was referring to the majority verdict given by the 11-judge Bench in the T. M. A Pai versus State of Karnataka case in 2002. The Bench said the Court cannot pass "general" directions to States to bestow certain communities with minority status. "If you bring a concrete case, we can look into it… This has to be done on a case-to-case basis," Justice Lalit told the petitioner side.
"You want to somehow bring out a case when there is none. We can look into concrete case of denial, the court cannot pass general orders" Justice Bhat said.
At this point, advocate Ashwini Upadhyay intervened to point out that a similar petition was pending before another Bench of the apex court. He urged the Bench to tag this petition along with the other one which has been pending since 2020. Mr. Upadhyay is himself the petitioner in the 2020 case.
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