One hon’ble HC judge rules: Muslims in UP not minority
Express News Service
Posted online: Friday, April 06, 2007 at 0000 hrs Print Email
Allahabad HC- Tells Govt: treat them at par with non-minority
ALLAHABAD, LUCKNOW, APRIL 5: In an order likely to raise political temperatures ahead of the Assembly polls in UP where the first round begins this Saturday, the Allahabad High Court today ruled that Muslims of the state can no longer be treated as a religious minority.
Justice S N Srivastava gave the ruling after taking into account various criteria, including the population of Muslims in the 1951 and 2001 census reports. He said this was just the operative part of his judgment and the complete verdict would follow later since he is scheduled to sit at the Lucknow Bench from April 9.
Ruling on a writ petition by a Ghazipur madrasa which had challenged out-of-turn grant-in-aid to certain other minority institutions, Justice Srivastava directed the UP government to treat members of the Muslim community as ‘‘equal to other non-minority religious communities without discriminating in any respect in accordance with law’’. The UP government was also directed to treat all Muslim institutions applying for grant-in-aid at par with non-minority institutions.
The ruling drew strong reactions from the Muslims who said they would appeal. UP advocate general S M A Kazmi said the state too would appeal. Shia cleric Maulana Kalbe Jawwad and Sunni cleric Khalid Rashid Firangi Mahli said they hoped the order would be stayed.
The BJP, which felt the verdict vindicated the party stand, was careful with its words in public, not wanting the UP Muslims to unite and rally behind any one political rival. Party president Rajnath Singh — incidentally, the Election Commission today ordered an FIR against him and other BJP leaders for a poll CD which insulted Muslims — simply said “this is the High Court`s verdict and we do not wish to respond to that, we will give our considered view if the Supreme Court delivers a verdict”.
Justice Srivastava also issued notice to the Centre and the UP government to take appropriate steps to modify an October 23, 1993 notification issued by the Central government on grant of minority status.
Taking note of the petition, he directed the UP Chief Secretary to initiate an inquiry into the allegations and said it should cover all orders passed since 2003 recognising institutions for grant-in-aid. “The inquiry will be conducted by an officer not below the rank of Principal Secretary and completed within three months of the presentation of a certified copy of this order,” Justice Srivastava said.
He said he had applied ¿”he twin criteria, i.e, population and strength of a religious community as laid down by the founding fathers of the Constitution of India, as is clear from the proceedings of the Constituent Assembly, to determine any religious community as a religious minority.”
“The court finds that Muslims have ceased to be a religious minority community in the state of Uttar Pradesh on consideration of the material on record which include various census reports including those of 1951 and 2001,” the judge said.
“The UP government should treat any member of Muslim community equal to other non-minority religious communities without discriminating in any respect in accordance with law being an integral part of citizenry of India,” he said.
|
