Jan-March 2006 - Institute of Sikh Studies

MINORITY RIGHTS ARE INDIVISIBLE57MINORITY RIGHTS ARE INDIVISIBLE– MAJORITY PRESSURES CAN DENY EQUALITY –SYED SHAHABUDDIN *The August 8, 2005, judgement of a three-judge Bench of theSupreme Court in the Bal Patil case (CA 4730 of 1999), written by MrJustice D M Dharmadhikari, has not received the critical attention itdeserved. Perhaps, it may be due to the Jains being a relatively smallminority with a population of about 4.2 millions (2001), which is notmuch in the news or wields little political strength even in five stateswhere more than five lakh Jains live.The Jains have been counted as a separate religious community,since the first decennial census in 1871, with the distinction that theyare not recognised as a religious minority by the same governmentwhich holds the census.The judgement rejects the Jain plea to the Central Governmentto notify the community as a minority under Section 2 (C) of theNational Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, basing itself on the11-judge Bench decision in the TMA Pai case, which related to thescope of Article 30 of the Constitution. The majority opinion speakingthrough the then Chief Justice Kirpal was that since the reorganisationof the states in India has been on a linguistic basis, the unit for thepurpose of determining a linguistic minority be the state and not thewhole of India. But the opinion goes on to apply illogically the sameyardstick to religious minorities, though the states were not organisedon “religious basis”, and comes to the conclusion that “religion andlinguistic minorities, who (sic) have been put on a par in Article 30,have to be considered state-wise”. The Central Government found itconvenient to take shelter under this illogical presumption and refused* IFS Officer (retd), former Member of Parliament. (Courtesy : The Tribune, November25, 2005)