The Evening Wrap: More time sought on State-wise identification of linguistic, religious minorities

The Centre’s position in the Supreme Court on Tuesday remained uncertain on whether its 1993 notification identifying Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Parsis as minority communities needed reconsideration in light of a view by the National Commission for Minorities that religious and linguistic minority communities ought to be identified State-wise. Instead, the Centre sought more time in court to gather the views of six States and Union Territories which have so far remained mum on the question. Currently, 24 State governments and Union Territories have given a mixed response, some leaving the task of identifying minorities to the Centre or preferring the status quo while others, including BJP-ruled Assam and Uttarakhand, and States like West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, maintaining that minorities should be identified at the State-level. Appearing before a Bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul on Tuesday, Attorney General R. Venkataramani said the six who have remained silent include Jammu & Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Lakshadweep, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, and Telangana. “I would presume that they have nothing to say then? Frankly, Jammu & Kashmir is administered by you at the moment. So is Lakshadweep… Is it that your own administrations are not responding?” Justice Kaul asked. The Attorney General said Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Telangana were major States and their responses were important. “We give a last opportunity to the Centre to get their responses, failing which we will presume that they have nothing to say,” the court observed in its order, listing the case on March 21. The hearing began with senior advocate C.S. Vaidyanathan, for petitioner-advocate Ashwini Upadhyay, drawing the court’s attention to a status report filed by the Centre on January 10. “The National Commission for Minorities (NCM) agrees with the definition of ‘minority’ not on a nationwide basis but State-wise… In spite of this, the 1993 notification continues… The government may either have to withdraw it or come up with a fresh notification,” Vaidyanathan submitted. The NCM’s input, dating back to October 2020 and reproduced in the Centre’s status report in January 2023, said “the State has to be regarded as the unit for determining linguistic and religious minority”. The Commission had referred to the court’s 11-judge Bench judgment in the T.M.A. Pai Foundation case of 2002 and Bal Patil verdict of 2005, in which the apex court had clarified that “henceforth the unit for determining status of both linguistic and religious minorities would be ‘State’”. The National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions, a statutory body notified by the Centre, too had referred to the T.M.A. Pai Foundation judgment’s conclusion that “a minority, whether linguistic or religious, is determinable only by reference to the demography of the State and not by taking into consideration the population of the country as a whole”. The Ministry of Education had also pointed to the logic presented by the 11-judge Bench decision. Meanwhile, the Home Ministry said it has “no specific input or comments to offer in this matter”. The Law Ministry remained non-committal, saying the comments of the State governments were needed and it had “nothing more to add at this stage”. Upadhyay has challenged Section 2(f) and Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Educational Institutions Act, 2004 and the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, respectively, passed by the Parliament. These Sections specifically empower the Centre to notify a minority community. Upadhyay’s petition argued: “In exercise of the unbridled powers conferred by Section 2(c) of the NCM Act, the central government through a notification dated October 23, 1993, arbitrarily notified five communities viz. Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Parsis as ‘minority’ communities, without defining ‘minority’ and framing guidelines for identification at the State level. In 2014, Jaina was added in the list as the sixth minority, though the three judges Bench of the Supreme Court in the Bal Patil case had very categorically refused to grant minority status to them.” PM Sharif’s call for talks with PM Modi only after India revokes abrogation of Article 370: Pakistan PMO Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has called for “serious and sincere talks” with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on “burning points like Kashmir”. In an interview with Dubai-based Al Arabiya TV, Sharif said that Pakistan has learned its lesson after three wars with India and stressed that now it wants peace with its neighbour. “My message to the Indian leadership and Prime Minister Modi is that let’s sit down on the table and have serious and sincere talks to resolve our burning points like Kashmir. It is up to us to live peacefully and make progress or quarrel with each other and waste time and resources,” Sharif said. Meanwhile, the Pakistan PMO, in a series of tweets, clarified that PM Sharif had made it clear that talks with India will be possible only when the neighbour reverses the abrogation of Article 370 that grants autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir. In an interview with the Dubai-based Arabic news channel, the Pakistan Prime Minister said, “We have had three wars with India, and they have only brought more misery, poverty, and unemployment to the people. We have learnt our lesson, and we want to live in peace with India, provided we are able to resolve our genuine problems,” Sharif said in the interview that was aired on January 16. Pakistan, which is battling a severe economic crisis, public discontent due to flour crisis and fuel shortage among others, is also faced with rising instances of terror attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which had ended a ceasefire with the country’s security forces late last year. India is our neighbour country, we are neighbours. Let’s be very blunt, even if we are not neighbours by choice we are there forever and it is up to us for us to live peacefully and progress or quarrel with each other and waste time and resources. That is up to us,” Sharif said in the interview to Al Arabiya. Sharif also brought up the subject of Kashmir, adding that Pakistan wants peace but insists that “what is happening in Kashmir should be stopped”. “[India] usurped whatever semblance of autonomy was given to Kashmiris in their Consitution — Article 370. They revoked that in August 2019, and minorities over there are pained, grossly mishandled. This must stop so that a message can go around the globe that India is ready to have talks, and we are more than ready,” said Sharif. The Pakistan leader in the interview that was also uploaded on Monday on the @AlArabiya_shows Twitter handle said that both the countries have engineers, doctors, and skilled labourers. “We want to utilise these assets for prosperity and to bring peace to the region so that both nations can grow.” “Pakistan does not want to waste resources on bombs and ammunition. We are nuclear powers, armed to the teeth, and if God forbids, a war breaks out, who will live to tell what happened?” he said. U.N. anti-terror committee blacklists LeT’s Abdul Rehman Makki The ISIL and Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the U.N. Security Council (UNSC) has placed Jamat-ud-Dawa’s Abdul Rehman Makki, fundraiser and a key planner of the Pakistan-based terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, in its sanctions list. Abdul Makki was one of five such listings of leaders of the LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) blocked by China between June and November last year, after joint India-U.S. proposals for their listing, while India was still in the UNSC. Officials did not comment on why there was a turnaround in the Chinese position, and whether other listings requested would now go through. “Abdul Rehman Makki and other LET/JUD operatives have been involved in raising funds, recruiting and radicalising youth to violence and planning attacks in India, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K),” said the Committee, explaining the reasons that prompted it to add Makki to the blacklist. India and the United States had listed Makki as a terrorist under national laws and had jointly proposed to blacklist him under the U.N. Security Council’s ISIL and Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee on June 1, 2022. But China placed a “technical hold” on the India-U.S. proposal during that occasion and stopped that process. At that time, India had termed China’s “technical hold” as “extremely unfortunate”. For adding Makki’s name in the sanctions list, the Committee on January 16, has cited seven terror attacks including the 2000 Red Fort attack, the 2008 Rampur attack, and the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The 2018 attack in Gurez that killed four Indian Army soldiers was also linked to him by the Committee. The anti-terror committee further said that Makki is the head of the LeT political affairs and has served in the LeT’s foreign relations department and the Shura (governing body). “He is also a member of JUD’s Markazi (Central) team and Daawati (proselytization) team,” said the Committee highlighting that he is the brother-in-law of Hafiz Saeed who is “wanted by the Indian Government”. Government delaying judges’ appointment till people favourable to it are in place: Congress The government is deliberately delaying the appointment of judges to create a “designed schism and a consequent logjam” till people favourable to its “ideological masters” are appointed, the Congress alleged on January 17. The party’s fresh attack comes a day after it said the government was intimidating the judiciary in a bid to totally capture it and alleged that Law Minister Kiren Rijiju’s suggestion to restructure the Collegium system is a “poison pill” for the judiciary. The Narendra Modi government is following a policy of “deliberately withholding Collegium recommendations for months and years” to keep the fate of named judges in limbo, Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala alleged. He said this is a “designed attack to avoid accountability by the government and with malintent to capture the judiciary”. “The Prime Minister, Law Minister and other Constitutional authorities are deliberately attacking the integrity and independence of the judiciary by a design. The underlying and obvious purpose is the capture of the judiciary so that the government is not held accountable for its arbitrary acts by the court,” he said on Twitter. “The idea is to create a designed schism and a consequent logjam bringing the judicial appointments and transfers to a standstill until people favourable to the thinking of the Modi government and its ideological masters find a place in the list of appointees,” Surjewala said and claimed this is an open secret. The Congress’ attack comes after Law Minister Rijiju wrote to Chief Justice of India D. Y. Chandrachud suggesting the inclusion of representatives from the Union and State governments in the Supreme Court and high court collegiums. The Minister backed his suggestion, saying it will help infuse transparency and public accountability in the selection of judges. Surjewala said according to the Law Minister himself, six Supreme Court judges’ posts and 333 High Court judges’ posts are vacant as of December 2022. “Yet, out of 21 names recommended for various high courts, the BJP government has returned 19 to the Collegium for reconsideration. This is despite 10 of the names having been reiterated by the Collegium,” he claimed. “It is, thus, clear who is responsible for the delays in appointment of judges,” the Congress leader said. Noting that the current Collegium system needs reform, Surjewala said the “judicial appointments need transparency and fairness that is apparent”. “However, the open hostility and prejudice of the ruling government should not be permitted to dictate the due process of appointment and transfer of judges,” he said. The Rajya Sabha MP said it is time for every Indian to raise their voice, “for silence is a sacrilege when institutional capture is writ large”. “Need for judicial reforms cannot be a cloak for judicial subjugation at the altar of the Modi government. Stand up and speak for judicial Independence. Satyameva Jayate,” he said in another tweet. The government and the judiciary have been at loggerheads over the process of appointment of judges to the higher judiciary, with Rijiju publicly making remarks on judicial appointments. Several Union Ministers, Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla have slammed the 2015 scrapping of the National Judicial Appointment Commission (NJAC) by the apex court and claimed that the judiciary was encroaching the domain of the legislature. In Brief: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president J.P. Nadda’s term in that post has been extended to June 2024, with the party now poised to face the next General Elections with him at the helm. The decision, one of the expected outcomes of the BJP’s national executive meet, was endorsed on the final day of the two-day meet being held in New Delhi. It also quietens speculation on whether the BJP’s loss in Himachal Pradesh, Nadda’s home State, would be laid at his door. Union Home Minister Amit Shah made the formal announcement to the media, stating that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had tabled the proposal, which was endorsed by the 350 or so delegates at the meet. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 17 JANUARY 2023 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( Centre seeks more time from Supreme Court on State-wise identification of linguistic and religious minorities The[Centre’s position in the Supreme Court on Tuesday remained uncertain on whether its 1993 notification]( identifying Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Parsis as minority communities needed reconsideration in light of a view by the National Commission for Minorities that religious and linguistic minority communities ought to be identified State-wise. Instead, the Centre sought more time in court to gather the views of six States and Union Territories which have so far remained mum on the question. Currently, 24 State governments and Union Territories have given a mixed response, some leaving the task of identifying minorities to the Centre or preferring the status quo while others, including BJP-ruled Assam and Uttarakhand, and States like West Bengal and Tamil Nadu, maintaining that minorities should be identified at the State-level. [A view of the Supreme Court of India, in New Delhi.] Appearing before a Bench led by Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul on Tuesday, Attorney General R. Venkataramani said the six who have remained silent include Jammu & Kashmir, Arunachal Pradesh, Lakshadweep, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, and Telangana. “I would presume that they have nothing to say then? Frankly, Jammu & Kashmir is administered by you at the moment. So is Lakshadweep… Is it that your own administrations are not responding?” Justice Kaul asked. The Attorney General said Rajasthan, Jharkhand and Telangana were major States and their responses were important. “We give a last opportunity to the Centre to get their responses, failing which we will presume that they have nothing to say,” the court observed in its order, listing the case on March 21. The hearing began with senior advocate C.S. Vaidyanathan, for petitioner-advocate Ashwini Upadhyay, drawing the court’s attention to a status report filed by the Centre on January 10. “The National Commission for Minorities (NCM) agrees with the definition of ‘minority’ not on a nationwide basis but State-wise… In spite of this, the 1993 notification continues… The government may either have to withdraw it or come up with a fresh notification,” Vaidyanathan submitted. The NCM’s input, dating back to October 2020 and reproduced in the Centre’s status report in January 2023, said “the State has to be regarded as the unit for determining linguistic and religious minority”. The Commission had referred to the court’s 11-judge Bench judgment in the T.M.A. Pai Foundation case of 2002 and Bal Patil verdict of 2005, in which the apex court had clarified that “henceforth the unit for determining status of both linguistic and religious minorities would be ‘State’”. The National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions, a statutory body notified by the Centre, too had referred to the T.M.A. Pai Foundation judgment’s conclusion that “a minority, whether linguistic or religious, is determinable only by reference to the demography of the State and not by taking into consideration the population of the country as a whole”. The Ministry of Education had also pointed to the logic presented by the 11-judge Bench decision. Meanwhile, the Home Ministry said it has “no specific input or comments to offer in this matter”. The Law Ministry remained non-committal, saying the comments of the State governments were needed and it had “nothing more to add at this stage”. Upadhyay has challenged Section 2(f) and Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Educational Institutions Act, 2004 and the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, respectively, passed by the Parliament. These Sections specifically empower the Centre to notify a minority community. Upadhyay’s petition argued: “In exercise of the unbridled powers conferred by Section 2(c) of the NCM Act, the central government through a notification dated October 23, 1993, arbitrarily notified five communities viz. Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Parsis as ‘minority’ communities, without defining ‘minority’ and framing guidelines for identification at the State level. In 2014, Jaina was added in the list as the sixth minority, though the three judges Bench of the Supreme Court in the Bal Patil case had very categorically refused to grant minority status to them.” PM Sharif’s call for talks with PM Modi only after India revokes abrogation of Article 370: Pakistan PMO [Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has called for “serious and sincere talks” with Prime Minister Narendra Modi]( on “burning points like Kashmir”. In an interview with Dubai-based Al Arabiya TV, Sharif said that Pakistan has learned its lesson after three wars with India and stressed that now it wants peace with its neighbour. “My message to the Indian leadership and Prime Minister Modi is that let’s sit down on the table and have serious and sincere talks to resolve our burning points like Kashmir. It is up to us to live peacefully and make progress or quarrel with each other and waste time and resources,” Sharif said. [Pakistan Prime Miniter Shehbaz Sharif speaks during an interview with Dubai-based Al Arabiya TV, on January 17, 2023.] Meanwhile, the Pakistan PMO, in a series of tweets, clarified that PM Sharif had made it clear that talks with India will be possible only when the neighbour reverses the abrogation of Article 370 that grants autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir. In an interview with the Dubai-based Arabic news channel, the Pakistan Prime Minister said, “We have had three wars with India, and they have only brought more misery, poverty, and unemployment to the people. We have learnt our lesson, and we want to live in peace with India, provided we are able to resolve our genuine problems,” Sharif said in the interview that was aired on January 16. Pakistan, which is battling a severe economic crisis, public discontent due to flour crisis and fuel shortage among others, is also faced with rising instances of terror attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), which had ended a ceasefire with the country’s security forces late last year. India is our neighbour country, we are neighbours. Let’s be very blunt, even if we are not neighbours by choice we are there forever and it is up to us for us to live peacefully and progress or quarrel with each other and waste time and resources. That is up to us,” Sharif said in the interview to Al Arabiya. Sharif also brought up the subject of Kashmir, adding that Pakistan wants peace but insists that “what is happening in Kashmir should be stopped”. “[India] usurped whatever semblance of autonomy was given to Kashmiris in their Consitution — Article 370. They revoked that in August 2019, and minorities over there are pained, grossly mishandled. This must stop so that a message can go around the globe that India is ready to have talks, and we are more than ready,” said Sharif. The Pakistan leader in the interview that was also uploaded on Monday on the @AlArabiya_shows Twitter handle said that both the countries have engineers, doctors, and skilled labourers. “We want to utilise these assets for prosperity and to bring peace to the region so that both nations can grow.” “Pakistan does not want to waste resources on bombs and ammunition. We are nuclear powers, armed to the teeth, and if God forbids, a war breaks out, who will live to tell what happened?” he said. U.N. anti-terror committee blacklists LeT’s Abdul Rehman Makki [The ISIL and Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee of the U.N. Security Council (UNSC)]( has placed Jamat-ud-Dawa’s Abdul Rehman Makki, fundraiser and a key planner of the Pakistan-based terrorist outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba, in its sanctions list. Abdul Makki was one of five such listings of leaders of the LeT and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) blocked by China between June and November last year, after joint India-U.S. proposals for their listing, while India was still in the UNSC. Officials did not comment on why there was a turnaround in the Chinese position, and whether other listings requested would now go through. “Abdul Rehman Makki and other LET/JUD operatives have been involved in raising funds, recruiting and radicalising youth to violence and planning attacks in India, particularly in Jammu and Kashmir (J&K),” said the Committee, explaining the reasons that prompted it to add Makki to the blacklist. India and the United States had listed Makki as a terrorist under national laws and had jointly proposed to blacklist him under the U.N. Security Council’s ISIL and Al Qaeda Sanctions Committee on June 1, 2022. But China placed a “technical hold” on the India-U.S. proposal during that occasion and stopped that process. At that time, India had termed China’s “technical hold” as “extremely unfortunate”. For adding Makki’s name in the sanctions list, the Committee on January 16, has cited seven terror attacks including the 2000 Red Fort attack, the 2008 Rampur attack, and the 2008 Mumbai attacks. The 2018 attack in Gurez that killed four Indian Army soldiers was also linked to him by the Committee. The anti-terror committee further said that Makki is the head of the LeT political affairs and has served in the LeT’s foreign relations department and the Shura (governing body). “He is also a member of JUD’s Markazi (Central) team and Daawati (proselytization) team,” said the Committee highlighting that he is the brother-in-law of Hafiz Saeed who is “wanted by the Indian Government”. Government delaying judges’ appointment till people favourable to it are in place: Congress [The government is deliberately delaying the appointment of judge]( to create a “designed schism and a consequent logjam” till people favourable to its “ideological masters” are appointed, the Congress alleged on January 17. The party’s fresh attack comes a day after it said the government was intimidating the judiciary in a bid to totally capture it and alleged that Law Minister Kiren Rijiju’s suggestion to restructure the Collegium system is a “poison pill” for the judiciary. The Narendra Modi government is following a policy of “deliberately withholding Collegium recommendations for months and years” to keep the fate of named judges in limbo, Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala alleged. He said this is a “designed attack to avoid accountability by the government and with malintent to capture the judiciary”. “The Prime Minister, Law Minister and other Constitutional authorities are deliberately attacking the integrity and independence of the judiciary by a design. The underlying and obvious purpose is the capture of the judiciary so that the government is not held accountable for its arbitrary acts by the court,” he said on Twitter. “The idea is to create a designed schism and a consequent logjam bringing the judicial appointments and transfers to a standstill until people favourable to the thinking of the Modi government and its ideological masters find a place in the list of appointees,” Surjewala said and claimed this is an open secret. The [Congress’ attack comes after Law Minister Rijiju wrote to Chief Justice of India D. Y. Chandrachud]( suggesting the inclusion of representatives from the Union and State governments in the Supreme Court and high court collegiums. The Minister backed his suggestion, saying it will help infuse transparency and public accountability in the selection of judges. Surjewala said according to the Law Minister himself, six Supreme Court judges’ posts and 333 High Court judges’ posts are vacant as of December 2022. “Yet, out of 21 names recommended for various high courts, the BJP government has returned 19 to the Collegium for reconsideration. This is despite 10 of the names having been reiterated by the Collegium,” he claimed. “It is, thus, clear who is responsible for the delays in appointment of judges,” the Congress leader said. Noting that the current Collegium system needs reform, Surjewala said the “judicial appointments need transparency and fairness that is apparent”. “However, the open hostility and prejudice of the ruling government should not be permitted to dictate the due process of appointment and transfer of judges,” he said. The Rajya Sabha MP said it is time for every Indian to raise their voice, “for silence is a sacrilege when institutional capture is writ large”. “Need for judicial reforms cannot be a cloak for judicial subjugation at the altar of the Modi government. Stand up and speak for judicial Independence. Satyameva Jayate,” he said in another tweet. The government and the judiciary have been at loggerheads over the process of appointment of judges to the higher judiciary, with Rijiju publicly making remarks on judicial appointments. Several Union Ministers, Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar and Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla have slammed the 2015 scrapping of the National Judicial Appointment Commission (NJAC) by the apex court and claimed that the judiciary was encroaching the domain of the legislature. In Brief: [Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president J.P. Nadda’s term in that post has been extended to June 2024]( with the party now poised to face the next General Elections with him at the helm. The decision, one of the expected outcomes of the BJP’s national executive meet, was endorsed on the final day of the two-day meet being held in New Delhi. It also quietens speculation on whether the BJP’s loss in Himachal Pradesh, Nadda’s home State, would be laid at his door. Union Home Minister Amit Shah made the formal announcement to the media, stating that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had tabled the proposal, which was endorsed by the 350 or so delegates at the meet. 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