Apex court said that minority status to the states not for the districts regarding hindu minority plea

The Apex Court on Monday said the question of considering Hindus as minorities in various states can be taken into consideration only on the basis of the overall population in a state, not in specific district.

The court further said  that it would be better if such an exercise is left to the executive.

A bench composed of Justices U.U. Lalit and S. Ravindra Bhat delivered  the petitioners must furnish specific examples on how the community is being denied minority status.

A petitioner, seeking declaration of Hindus as minorities in some states, had cited district-wise data.

“Yes, theoretically, you're right. But if the Supreme Court had earlier said it's to be state-wise, why should we interfere?” Justice Lalit, heading the bench, asked one among the PIL petitioners.

Justice Bhat said the prayer of the petitioners was “untenable” as in 2002, an 11-judge constitution bench had ruled that the state should be taken as the basis for determining the minority status.

“When you're talking about minorities, there are minorities everywhere in India. as an example you've got Parsis, Konkani and various others who can be minorities in an exceedingly small place. How does one declare somebody as a minority? it's not the duty of the court.

“Only if there's a concrete case that Hindus are denied minority status in Mizoram or Kashmir can we glance into it. In some states, some communities are minorities. But it's not the court which should be doing this. If you give us some specific examples, then we are able to certainly cross-check it,” the bench observed.

However, the bench said it might tag this matter with a batch of petitions filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay et al who had raised similar contentions on which another bench, headed by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, had already issued notice to the Union government.

On Monday, the bench accordingly tagged the petition filed by Thakur together with the opposite PIL petitions on the problem in order that it is listed before the “appropriate bench” within the first week of September.

The petition filed earlier by advocate Upadhyay had sought declaration of Hindus as minorities in nine states to enable them to run and manage their own educational institutions on a par with Muslims, Christians et al. who enjoy such benefits under Article 29 and 30 of the Constitution.

Article 29 protects the interests of minorities, while Article 30 grants minorities the proper to determine and administer their own educational institutions without much government interference.

Subsequently, several other individuals had joined the plea.