Plea in SC seeks transfer of petitions challenging minority status of five communities

BJP leader and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay has approached the Supreme Court with a petition requesting to transfer the multiple pleas pending across high courts that question the validity of the Centre's 26-year-old notification declaring five communities -Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Parsi and Buddhist communities-as minorities.

The cases argue that most states have these communities in the majority and the Hindus, who are the minority in some, don't enjoy any benefits. These petitions challenge the constitutional validity of section 2 (c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act of 1992, according to which the notification declaring the minorities was issued on October 23, 1993.

Currently, the Delhi, Meghalaya, Guwahati high courts have cases against the National Minority Commission. The Hindu community remains a minority in states like Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, and Punjab and the Union territories like Jammu-Kashmir and Lakshadweep.

"At present, in different states, these communities under the minority tag have been taking huge advantage," says the petition.

The plea demands to consider the Hindus, who are the majority by national data, to be given benefit in places where they are the minority, especially in the northeastern states and Jammu Kashmir.