HC REVERSES ORDER ON UP MUSLIMS NOT BEING MINORITIES

The Allahabad High Court on July 24 quashed the judgment delivered by a single judge of the same High Court on April 5, 2007, holding that Muslims in Uttar Pradesh were not a religious minority. Delivering this long-awaited verdict, a division bench of the high court held that Muslims were a ‘minority’ by a notification dated October 23, 1993, and that nobody challenged either the validity of any provision of the National Minorities Commission Act (1992) or the said notification issued under Section 2(c) of the said Act notifying Muslims. The bench of Justice S.R. Alam and Justice Sudhir Aggarwal, while allowing the special appeal filed by the state government against the order of the single judge, observed that it was not open for the single judge to direct the Union Government to take appropriate step to modify the notification dated October 23, 1993, issued under the 1992 Act. Commenting on the single judge order, the Bench observed: “It’s clear that the Minority Commission has been set up with the statutory status and the apex court, in a case having read Section 9 of the said Act, had taken a view that it was illustrative and not exhaustive about the functions of the commission, and, it could also aid and advise the Government in respect to identification of any community as minority. Although the ultimate power in this regard shall vest in the Central government alone under Section 2(c) of the Act, it is always open for the Commission to consider this aspect.”