The Supreme Court on Tuesday told the Union government not to take different stands on a plea seeking directions to provide minority tag to Hindus in states where their numbers have gone below the strength of other communities, PTI reported.
A bench of Justices SK Kaul and MM Sundresh was responding to a fresh affidavit filed by the Union government in connection with the petition on Monday.
In the new affidavit, the Ministry of Minority Affairs said that the matter has “far-reaching ramifications” and so it needed to consult the state governments, The Indian Express reported.
“Any stand taken without detailed deliberations with the stakeholders may result in an unintended complication for the country,” the ministry said.
However, in its previous affidavit filed on March 25, the ministry had cited the Supreme Court’s verdict in the 2003 TMA Pai case, saying that states too are empowered to declare a community as minority.
In the 2003 judgement, the Supreme Court had also held that minorities have to be considered statewise in order to abide by Article 30 of the Constitution, which provides minorities the right to establish educational institutes.
On Tuesday, the court said that the Centre should have held consultations with state governments before filing the new affidavit.
“What I am unable to understand is the Union of India is not able to decide what to do,” the bench said. “All this thought should have been given before.”
The court also said that matter of giving minority status to Hindus needs to be resolved.
“If the Centre wants to consult with the states, we will have to take a call,” the bench observed, reported PTI. “You decide what you want to do. If you want to consult them, do it. Who is stopping you from doing so?”
The bench also told Solicitor General Mehta that the Centre needs to be more careful while filing affidavits, Live Law reported.
The bench then directed the Centre to file a status report in August after consulting the states.
The matter has been posted for hearing on August 30.
On January 7, the Supreme Court had granted a “last opportunity” to the Union government to reply to a petition filed by lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, seeking guidelines for identifying minorities at the state level.
In a public interest litigation, Upadhyay has stated that Hindus are a minority in 10 states and Union Territories, but they cannot avail themselves of schemes.
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