The government has sought more time from the Supreme Court to hold consultations on the issue of granting minority status to religious communities, including Hindus, said to be numerically low in as many as 10 States.
The Ministry of Minority Affairs, in an affidavit, said comments and views of States like Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir have not been received as on date.
"Further, comments from Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh are also awaited. In these States, the issue may have wider ramifications," the Ministry said.
The Centre said it proposed to hold meetings in the coming weeks. The government asked the court to defer the hearing scheduled on August 30.
In May, the court had expressed its displeasure over the Centre's shifting stand on the issue.
On March 25, the Ministry, in an affidavit, had told the court that both the Centre and States have "concurrent power" to notify minorities. It had even said that States could also recognise a community as a minority at the individual State-level.
Hardly two months later, a "superseding" affidavit was filed by the same Ministry, reversing its own position. This time, the Ministry had claimed the Centre alone was vested with the power to notify a minority community. However, the Ministry had also said that it would have engage in a "wide consultation with the State governments and other stakeholders" before notifying any community as a minority.
"You seem to have taken a U-turn from your earlier stand. You people have not been able to decide what you have to do. There is a lot of uncertainty. If you had wanted to consult, who was stopping the Government of India. Taking different stands does not help. Consultations should have taken place before you filed your affidavits. We do not appreciate this," Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul, leading the Bench hearing the case, had lashed out at the Centre in May.
Advocate Ashwini Upadhyay, the petitioner, has sought a clear answer from the Centre on whether it was the Parliament or the State legislatures that had the power to notify a community as a 'minority'.
