Panel to file report on demand for minority status for Hindus in seven states and a Union Territory
The National Commission for Minorities set up the three-member committee after BJP leader Ashwini Upadhyaya filed a petition.
A three-member committee set up by the National Commission for Minorities will look into whether Hindus should get minority status in seven states and a Union Territory where they are not the dominant religious group, The Indian Express reported on Thursday.
The panel, led by the commission’s Vice Chairman George Kurien, has been given three months to submit its report.
National Commission for Minorities form a 3 member Committee to study the matter to give minority status to Hindus in 8 states. Committee to give a report within 3 months.
— ANI (@ANI) December 6, 2017
The commission’s decision is based on a plea filed by Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ashwini Upadhyaya, whose petition on the matter was rejected by the Supreme Court on November 10. The court had directed him to approach the minorities’ commission.
The National Commission for Minorities sought the the Law Commission’s opinion on the subject on Sunday, ANI reported.
The rights of Hindus in these regions are being taken away “illegally and arbitrarily” because neither the Centre nor the states had notified them as a minority group under the National Commission of Minorities Act, Upadhyaya has said.
The states and the Union Territory named in the plea are Lakshadweep, Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Jammu and Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Punjab. The petitioner has referred to a December 18, 1992, resolution of the United Nations General Assembly and a judgment of the Supreme Court to back his demand.
