Explained: Who is a ‘minority’ in India? Here’s what courts have said

What is the News?

The Supreme Court will take up a petition seeking identification of minorities at the state level and granting minority status to Hindus in states and union territories where their numbers have gone below other communities.

What is the petition about?

A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court stating that the 2011 Census showed that Hindus have become a minority in states such as Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, J&K, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Punjab. But they were being denied minority benefits that are currently being enjoyed by the respective majority communities in these places.

What is the definition of Minority?

The Constitution does not define the term “minorities” anywhere, but only mentions it in some Articles.

For instance, 1) Article 29 deals with the “Protection of interests of minorities”, 2) Article 30 deals with the “right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions”, 3) Article 350(A) says there shall be a Special Officer for linguistic minorities to be appointed by the President. 

So, who is a minority in India?

Currently, only those communities notified under Section 2(c) of the National Minorities Commission Act, 1992 by the central government are regarded as minorities.

Hence, in the exercise of its powers, the Centre has notified six groups — Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis and Jains— as ‘minority’ communities. 

What has the Court said on the issue of Minority?

TMA PAI Case: In this case, the Supreme Court dealt with the question of the scope of rights of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice under the Constitution.

While delivering judgment, the court rejected the contention that since Hindus were a majority in India, they could not be a religious minority in the State of Punjab as it took the State as the unit to determine whether the Hindus were a minority community. Therefore, this judgment held that the unit to determine a religious or linguistic minority can only be the State.

BAL PATIL Case: In 2005, the SC in its judgment in ‘Bal Patil’ referred to the TMA Pai ruling, and said that the verdict in the TMA Pai Foundation case (supra) has clarified that the unit for determining the status of both linguistic and religious minorities would be ‘state’.

Source: This post is based on an article “Explained: Who is a ‘minority’ in India? Here’s what courts have said” published in Indian Express on 29th March 2022.