New Delhi –A petition has been filed in Supreme Court, challenging the National Minority Educational Institution Act, seeking to identify the state-wise minorities by population. The petition states that Hindus, Bahais and Jews are the de facto minorities in many states, but they do not have the right to open and run educational institutions of their choice due to lack of minority status there. Referring to the Supreme Court’s 18-year-old TMA Pai decision, it has been said that in it the court had asked to identify state-wise minorities, which has not been followed till date.
The petition stated that one of the questions of the law in the TMA Pai decision was that according to Article 30, religious and linguistic minorities would be state-wise at the national level. In response to this question, the 11-member constitution bench of the Supreme Court had decided that linguistic and religious minorities should be state-wise. The petitioner says that linguistic minorities are identified state-wise at present, but religious minorities are identified only at the national level. This petition has been filed in the Supreme Court by BJP leader and lawyer Ashwani Upadhyay.
Commission Act 2004 Section 2 (f) challenged
The petition challenged Section 2 (f) of National Minorities Educational Institutions Commission Act 2004. This law came into force on 6 January 2005. The National Minority Educational Institution Commission was formed under this law. Under this, minority status communities have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice. Under this law, the government provides stipend and other facilities to these institutions.
Hindu, Jewish and Bahái are de facto minorities in nine states
Section 2 (f) of the law empowers the Central Government to decide minority. Under this, the center has given minority status to Muslim Christian Parsi Sikh Buddhist, Jain has been registered as a minority on 30 January 2014. The petition states that Hindus, Jews and Bahá’ís are the de facto minorities in the nine states of Ladakh, Kashmir, Lakshdeep, Meghalaya Manipur Mizoram, Arunachal, etc., but do not have the right to open and manage educational institutions of their choice. It has been said that Muslims are 96.58 per cent in Lakshadweep and 96 per cent in Kashmir, 44 per cent in Ladakh, Assam 34.20 per cent, 27.5 per cent in West Bengal, 26.6 per cent in Kerala, 19.5 per cent in Uttar Pradesh and 18 per cent in Bihar, and there they have schools of their choice. The right to open and manage them.
Right to open and manage educational institutions of choice
Similarly, Christians in Nagaland are 88.10 percent, Mizoram 87.16 percent, Meghalaya 74.59 percent, and Arunachal Pradesh, Goa Kerala, Manipur, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal also have a significant number of Christians. Nevertheless they have the right to open and manage the educational institution of their choice. The Sikhs are majority in Punjab and are also in adequate numbers in Delhi, Chandigarh and Haryana, yet they have the right to run their own schools. Buddhists are in abundance in Ladakh, they also have the right to run their own schools.
Law against Articles 24, 25 , 21, 29 and 30 of the Constitution
The petitioner says that Hindus are only one per cent in Ladakh, 2.75 in Mizoram, 2.77 per cent in Lakshadweep, 4 per cent in Kashmir, 8.74 in Nagaland, 11.52 in Meghalaya, 29 per cent in Arunachal, 38.4 per cent in Punjab and 41.2 per cent in Manipur. There is no right to open and manage educational institutions of choice. Whereas in 2002, an 11-member constitution bench of the Supreme Court made it clear in the TMA Pai case that religious and linguistic minorities would be identified at the state level and not the national level. The petition said that even at the national level who believe in Baha’i religion, there are 0.1 per cent and Jews 0.2 per cent, yet they have not been given the status of minority. The National Minorities Educational Institutions Commission Act is against Articles 24, 25, 21, 29 and 30 of the Constitution.
A total of three demands were placed in the petition
A total of three demands have been placed in the petition. The first demand is to repeal Section 2 (f) of the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act 2004 as it gives the Central Government unlimited power to arbitrarily declare minority. Another alternative demand is that if the court does not quash this clause, then Jewish Baha’is and Hindus should be empowered to open and run educational institutions of their choice in Ladakh Mizoram Lakshadweep Kashmir Nagaland Meghalaya Arunachal Pradesh Punjab and Manipur. The third demand is that the central government be directed to issue a state-wise guideline to identify minorities, so that communities which are religiously and linguistically insignificant in number and socially economically and politically ineffective should choose their own. Be sure to get the right to set up and run the school.
Abhishek Kumar @samacharline