The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to entertain a plea seeking minority status for Hindus in certain states in the country where they do not form the majority of the population.
Hearing a plea challenging the validity of the Centre’s 26-year-old notification declaring five communities — Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Parsis — as minorities, a bench of Chief Justice SA Bobde and Justices BR Gavai and Surya Kant asked the petitioner advocate Ashwini Upadhyay, “What is your problem?”
Upadhyay asked for guidelines to be framed on which communities can be considered minorities, and for a 1993 notification specifying five national minorities (later updated to six) to be struck down.
The Chief Justice said – what kind of guidelines? “Who does not know who is a Hindu, Parsi or Muslim… how can there be guidelines. I do not think we will entertain this,” said the Chief Justice.
Religion must be considered pan-India,” said the bench. The court cited that in Lakshadweep, Muslims follow Hindu law.