Plea in SC to transfer to itself petitions against National Commission for Minorities Act provision
Oct 24, 2020
New Delhi [India], October 24 : A petition has been filed before the Supreme Court seeking directions to transfer all pending petitions before various High Courts challenging the validity of Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, to itself.
The transfer plea, filed by lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay through advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey on Friday, said that the petition has been filed in order to avoid the multiplicity of litigations and conflicting views on the interpretation of Articles 29 and 30 of the Constitution of India.
Article 29 and 30 of the Constitution deal with the protection of interests of minorities, and the right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions respectively.
There are many petitions filed before various State High Courts, including Delhi, Guwahati, and Meghalaya, challenging the validity of Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) Act, 1992.
Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) Act, 1992, says that "minority", for the purposes of this Act, means a community notified as such by the Central government.
Upadhayay, in his plea, said that the apex court is the custodian of the Constitution and protector of fundamental rights and thereby should direct the Ministry of Home Affairs to identify and notify the religious and linguistic minorities at the state level in the spirit of the Constitution of India.
The petitioner further submitted that "the minority rights of Hindus are being siphoned off illegally and arbitrarily to the majority population because neither the Centre nor respective States have notified them as 'minority' under Section 2(c) of the NCM Act."
"Hence, Hindus are being deprived of their basic rights and protections guaranteed under Articles 29-30," the plea claimed.
