The Centre has sought more time from the Supreme Court to carry out consultations with the state governments on determining minorities on state level.
The Ministry of Minority Affairs filed the response in the top court on the plea for determining minorities on the state level. It informed the apex court that 14 states & Union Territories including Punjab, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur, Odisha, Uttarakhand, Nagaland, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Goa, West Bengal, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Ladakh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu, Chandigarh have submitted their views.
“That in view of the position stated above, it is humbly submitted that since the matter is sensitive in nature and will have far-reaching ramifications, this court may kindly consider allowing more time to enable the state governments/union territories and stakeholders with whom the consultative meetings have already been held, to finalise their considered views in the matter,” said the report, which was filed in response to a PIL filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay.
The ministry said the Centre has held consultative meetings with all the state governments/UTs and also with the other stakeholders viz Ministry of Home Affairs, D/o Legal Affairs Ministry of Law & Justice, D/o Higher Education- Ministry of Education, National Commission for Minorities (NCM), and National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI).
The central government, in August too, had sought more time from the apex court to hold wider consultation with states and UTs regarding identification of religious minorities, including Hindus, at the state level.
In May, the top court said that the Centre is uncertain and has not taken a clear stand on a plea seeking a direction to it to lay down guidelines for identification of minorities at the state level, including Hindus.
The top court said that if the Centre wants to hold consultation with the state governments in connection with granting minority status to Hindus, where they are outnumbered by other communities then it should do so.
In a previous affidavit, the ministry had said: “State governments can also declare a religious or linguistic community as a minority community within the said state. For instance, the government of Maharashtra has notified Jews as a minority community within the state of Maharashtra.”
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