Minority - Indian Laws - General

Meaning of term Minority The term minority is not defined in the Constitution. Chief Justice Kirpal, speaking for the majority in Pai Foundation, took clue from the provisions of the State Reorganisation Act and held that in view of India having been divided into different linguistic States, carved out on the basis of the language of the majority of persons of that region, it is the State, and not the whole of India, that shall have to be taken as the unit for determining linguistic minority viz-a-viz Article 30. Inasmuch as Article 30(1) places on par religions and languages, he held that the minority status, whether by reference to language or by reference to religion, shall have to be determined by treating the State as unit. The principle would remain the same whether it is a Central legislation or a State legislation dealing with linguistic or religious minority. Khare, J. (as His Lordship then was), Quadri, J. and Variava Bhan, JJ. in their separate concrring opinions agreed with Kirpal, CJ. According to Khare, J., take the population of any State as a unit, find out its demography and calculate if the persons speaking a particular language or following a particular religion are less than 50% of the population, then give them the status of linguistic or religious minority. The population of the entire country is irrelevant for the purpose of determining such status. Quadri, J. opined that the word minority literally means a non-dominant group. Ruma Pal, J. defined the word minority to mean numerically less . However, she refused to take the State as a unit for the purpose of determining minority status as, in her opinion, the question of minority status must be determined with reference to the country as a whole. She assigned reasons for the purpose. Needless to say, her opinion is a lone voice. Thus, with the dictum of Pai Foundation, it cannot be doubted that minority, whether linguistic or religious, is determinable only by referenc to the demography of a State and not by taking into consideration the population of the country as a whole. [PA INAMDAR AND OTHERS VERSUS STATE OF MAHARASHTRA AND OTHERS- 2005 (8) TMI 614 - SUPREME COURT]