VoV Web Desk

PIL ON MINORITY STATUS TO HINDUS IN J&K, LADAKH, UTS; HC ISSUES NOTICES TO CENTRE

Decrease Font Size Increase Font Size Text Size Print This Page

NEW DELHI, Feb 28: Delhi High Court on Friday issued notices to the union ministries of law, home affairs and minority affairs on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) by BJP leader advocate Ashwini Upadhyay to grant the Hindus in nine states and union territories, including Jammu and Kashmir and fixed detailed hearing on May 4.
Upadhyay moved the High Court after a Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Rohinton Fali Nariman on February 20 rejected such a plea, holding that he may move the High Courts of the concerned state to redefine the religious minority in their respective jurisdictions.
His logic is that the Hindus are numerically much less than other communities in these states and a group that is socially, economically and politically non-dominant and numerically very inferior must enjoy the rights and protection guaranteed under Article 23 and 30.
The High Court bench of Chief Justice Dhirubhai Patel and Justice C Harishankar agreed for a detailed hearing after getting the government’s response on his plea to declare the Hindus as a minority in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Mizoram, Lakshadweep, Meghalaya and Manipur.
Senior advocate Vikash Singh and Upadhyay told the court about the Apex Court’s direction to approach the high court. They said the Hindus are a minority in nine states but they cannot establish educational institutions of their choice in the spirit of Article 30(1).
The petition said: “The Muslims are in a majority in Lakshadweep, Kashmir and Ladakh and they also have a significant population in Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Goa and Haryana, but they are treated as a minority under Article 29 and 30.”
It noted that the Sikhs are in a majority in Punjab and have a significant population in Delhi, Haryana and Chandigarh but they are treated as a minority. It said the Buddhists are also a majority in Ladakh but they are treated as a minority. The same is true about the Christians in a majority in Mizoram, Nagaland and Meghalaya and have a significant population in Goa, Arunachal Pradesh, Andaman, Kerala, Sikkim and Puducherry.
Seeking declaration of the notification on minority community dated October 23, 1993 as invalid and ultra-virus, the petition said denial of minority rights to the real minorities and arbitrary and unreasonable disbursement of minority benefits to majority infringes upon the fundamental right to prohibit discrimination on the grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of births.

KASHMIR TIMES

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *