States Too Can Declare Religious Or Linguistic Community As Minority: Government.

Why in news?

• Central government has told the Supreme Court (SC) that certain States, where Hindus or other communities are less in number, can declare them as minorities within their own territories, to enable them to set up and administer their own institutions.
• Centre’s response came in a plea seeking minority status for Hindus in states (Mizoram, Punjab etc.) in accordance with the principle laid down by the SC in its TMA Pai ruling (2002).
• In TMA Pai Case, SC said, for the purposes of Article 30, religious and linguistic minorities have to be considered state-wise.
• The centre has clarified that under the Constitution, both Parliament and state legislatures” have concurrent powers to enact law to provide for the protection of minorities and their interests”.
• Currently, only those communities notified under section 2(c) of the National Minorities Commission Act, 1992, by the central government are regarded as minorities.
• They are Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis and Jains.

Constitutional provisions on minorities

• Though not defined in the constitution, expression “minorities” appears in Article 29, 30 and 350.
• Article 29, which deals with the “Protection of interests of minorities” while Article 30 deals with the “right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions’:
• Article 350B says there shall be a Special Officer for linguistic minorities to be appointed by the President whose duty is to investigate all matters relating to the safeguards provided for linguistic minorities.