The Supreme Court of India will take up the petition to consider Hindus as a minority in states where their number are lesser. While the union government is yet to file its counter affidavit in the Supreme Court, the politically sensitive prayer urges the apex court to identify minorities at the state level as laid down in the 2002 T M A Pai case.
The top court had taken the BJP-government to task during the last hearing for dragging its feet in the matter. The Centre has instead kept shifting the onus of dealing with the question from one ministry to another. On January 7, the apex court had given the Centre last chance on January 7 to file its counter affidavit on the petition filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyaya in August 2020. The top court also rebuked the Centre for not taking a stand in the case despite being given multiple opportunities.
A report prepared by the SC office registry on March 25 noted that the counsel for the Ministry of Minority Affairs has neither filed a counter affidavit nor submitted proof of depositing Rs 7,500 imposed on the Centre for dragging the matter. However, it noted that an office memorandum dated October 9, 2020, from Rajendra Kumar Bharti, Under Secretary, Ministry of Home Affairs submitted to the court has noted that the petition is related to the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act, 2004, and the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992 and the MHA has no role to play in it.
The plea also challenges the Constitutional validity of Section 2(c) of the NCM Act. Similar petitions against the NCM Act were also filed in the meanwhile before the High Courts of Delhi, Meghalaya and Gauhati, which the SC transferred to itself on January 7, 2022, reported the IE.