The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Centre to respond to a public interest litigation challenging the validity of the National Commission for Minority Education Institution Act, 2004, for not recognising minorities at the state level, Live Law reported. The PIL also said that Hindus were a minority in nine states.

The PIL, filed by advocate and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, claimed that the Centre had “arbitrarily” notified Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians as minorities at the national level. The case was heard by a bench headed by Justice SK Kaul.

The petitioner said Hindus, Bahais and Jews, who were the “real minorities” in places such as Arunachal Pradesh, Lakshadweep, Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Punjab and Manipur, were not being able to establish their own educational institutions because they were not identified as minorities at the state level. “Their right under Articles 29-30 is being siphoned off illegally to the majority community in the State because Centre has not notified them as minority under the National Commission for Minority Education Institution Act,” the petitioner said.

Upadhyay told the court that Muslims were a majority in Jammu and Kashmir and Lakshadweep and formed a significant chunk of the population in Ladakh, Assam and Uttar Pradesh, among other states. “Christians are majority in Nagaland (88.10%), Mizoram (87.16%) and Meghalaya (74.59%), and there is significant population in Arunachal, Goa, Kerala, Manipur, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal,” the petitioner added.

“Likewise, Sikhs are majority in Punjab and there is large population in Delhi, Chandigarh, Haryana, but, they can establish and administer their educational institutions,” the petitioner said. “Similarly Buddhists are majority in Ladakh.”

“Hindus are merely 1% in Ladakh, 2.75% in Mizoram, 2.77% in Lakshadweep, 4% in Kashmir, 8.74% in Nagaland, 11.52% in Meghalaya, 29% in Arunachal Pradesh, 38.49% in Punjab, 41.29% in Manipur but Centre has not declared them ‘minority’,” the petitioner added. “Thus Hindus are not protected under Articles 29-30 and cannot establish and administer educational institution of their choice.”

The petitioner demanded that the Hindus, Bahais and Jews be allowed to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice. “In the alternative, direct the respondents to lay down guidelines for identification of minority at State level, in order to ensure that only those religious and linguistic groups, which are socially economically politically non-dominant and numerically inferior, can establish and administer educational institutions of their choice,” the petitioner added.