Agartala, Apr 09, 2023, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT/ TT
New Delhi, Apr 9: Tripura is among those state governments that have furnished their views to the Centre on the issue of identification of minorities at the state level.
A status report filed before the Supreme Court by the Ministry of Minority Affairs said that 24 states and six UTs have so far furnished their comments on the issue.
The state's include Tripura, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland and Sikkim in the northeast, besides Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Punjab, Odisha, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.
Others are Haryana, Gujarat, Goa, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and six Union Territories namely Ladakh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Chandigarh, NCT of Delhi, Andaman & Nicobar islands and Puducherry.
The apex court, before which the status report was filed, is scheduled to hear on Monday a batch of pleas seeking the identification of minorities at the state level.
A bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Ahsanuddin Amanullah will take up for hearing the petitions raising various issues related to the identification of minorities, including challenging the constitutional validity of the National Minority Commission Act, 1992 and the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutes Act, 2004.
The pleas include the one seeking directions for framing guidelines for the identification of minorities at the state level, contending that Hindus are in minority in 10 states.
On January 17, the top court had expressed displeasure over six states and Union Territories (UTs), including Jammu and Kashmir, not submitting their comments to the Centre on the issue of identification of minorities at the state level.
The status report, filed in the apex court on January 11, 2023, said that comments from six states and UTs - Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Lakshadweep, Rajasthan and Telangana - are still awaited.
On May 10 last year, the apex court expressed displeasure over the Centre's shifting stand on the issue of identification of minorities, including Hindus, at the state level and directed it to hold consultations with the states within three months.
In supersession of its earlier stand, the Centre had told the apex court that the power to notify minorities is vested with the Union government and any decision about the issue will be taken after discussion with states and other stakeholders.