New Delhi, December 17: The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to hear a public interest litigation (PIL) which asked for minority communities in India to be defined on the basis of state-wise population rather than the national data or census. The bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Sharad Arvind Bobde rejected the petition that came before it. BJP leader and lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay filed a PIL on the issue. The CJI, rejecting the PIL said that, “Religion must be viewed pan-India... religion does not recognise political borders. Muslims follow Hindu law... in places like Lakshadweep.” CJI Bobde added that the Court cannot frame guidelines. Minority Affairs Ministry Will Stage Play on Dara Shikoh to Promote Inclusive Thought: Naqvi.

Attorney General KK Venugopal told the apex court that the Centre was not supporting the petition which said that Hindus were a minority in eight states. Earlier in July, the bench had asked BJP leader and lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay to supply a copy of the petition to the office of the attorney general.

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The plea had challenged the validity of the Centre's 26-year-old notification declaring five communities -- Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis -- as minorities. It sought to declare as unconstitutional section 2 (c) of the National Commission for Minority (NCM) Act, 1992, under which the notification was issued on October 23, 1993.

Upadhyay had sought direction for laying down guidelines to define the term 'minority', based on state-wise population of a community instead of the national average. He had contended in the plea that the notification was violative of fundamental rights to health, education, shelter and livelihood.

The advocate had said he that he was filing the public interest litigation (PIL) on the issue as he had not received any response on his representation from the Home Ministry, the Ministry of Law and Justice and the National Commission for Minorities.

In his petition, the BJP leader also said that Hindus, who are a majority community as per national data, are a minority in several north-eastern states and in Jammu and Kashmir. However, the "Hindu community is deprived of benefits which are available to the minority communities in these states", the plea had said, adding that NCM should reconsider the definition of the minority in this context. According to the 2011 census, Hindus are in minority in Nagaland, Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh and Punjab.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 17, 2019 01:23 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).