‘States free to identify minorities and allow them to administer educational institutions’
The Hindu
No truth in petitioner claim that Centre has unbridled power, it tells SC
The governments in nine places, where followers of Hinduism, Baha’ism and Judaism are a ‘minority’, can consider laying down guidelines to identify them as minority communities at State–level and allow them to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice, the Centre has told the Supreme Court.
“Matters like declaring that followers of Judaism, Baha’ism and Hinduism who are minorities in Ladakh, Mizoram, Lakshadweep, Kashmir, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab and Manipur can establish and administer educational institutions of their choice in the State and laying down guidelines for identification of minority at State–level may be considered by the State government concerned,” the Ministry of Minority Affairs told the Supreme Court.
The Centre was responding to a petition filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay that the followers of Judaism, Baha’ism and Hinduism — who are the real minorities in Ladakh, Mizoram, Lakshadweep, Kashmir, Nagaland, Meghalya, Arunachal Pradesh, Punjab and Manipur — cannot establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.
The Centre said the allegation was “not correct”.
The government’s affidavit explained that Parliament and State legislatures have concurrent powers to enact law to provide for the protection of minorities and their interests.
“Religious and linguistic minorities are spread all over the country and are not related or restricted to any single State or Union Territory. India is a country with very unique characteristics. A religious group that is in majority in one State may be in minority in another State,” the Centre submitted.
The Centre gave the example of how Maharashtra notified ‘Jews’ as a minority community within the State. Again, Karnataka notified Urdu, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, Tulu, Lambadi, Hindi, Konkani and Gujarati as minority languages within the State.
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