New Delhi: The Supreme Court has granted three months time to the Central government to hold consultations with various State governments on the issue of granting minority status to Hindus in States where they are outnumbered by other communities.
A bench headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said it does not appreciate the Centre changing its stands on the plea seeking minority status for Hindus in some States.
It said more thought should have gone before finalising the affidavit and asked the Centre to undertake the consultative process. Taking different stands does not help, consultation should have taken place before the affidavit was filed. How can in a matter like this the affidavit first be filed that both Centre and State have power? Number of dates were given. Somebody should have been careful, Justice Kaul said.
The bench told the Centre that if it wants to hold consultation with States with regard to granting minority status to Hindus where they are outnumbered by other communities then it should do so. Yesterday, in an affidavit the Centre told the Supreme Court that the power to notify minorities is vested with the Union government and any decision in this regard will be taken after discussion with State governments and other stakeholders.
However, in March it told the apex court that certain States, where Hindus or other communities are less in number, can declare them a minority community within their own territories, to enable them to set up and administer their own institutions. Filing the affidavit on Monday, the Ministry of Minority Affairs said the Central government has notified six communities as minority communities under section 2C of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992. The question involved in the writ petition has far-reaching ramifications throughout the country and therefore any stand taken without detailed deliberations with the stakeholders may result in an unintended complication for the country, stated the affidavit filed on a plea of advocate Ashwini Upadhyay.