The Delhi High Court refused to issue directions on a plea seeking appointment of minorities other than Muslims and Sikhs as NCM head, allowing the petitioner to approach the Central government instead. The Court said the law only requires members to belong to minority communities, not any particular one.
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday refused to give any specific directions on a petition asking that members from minority communities other than Muslims and Sikhs be appointed as Chairperson of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) in the future.
A Division Bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela said that the petitioner should instead take his request directly to the Central government.
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The Court stated,
“This petition is disposed of with the liberty to the petitioner to approach the Central government. If the representation is made, it shall be attended to and appropriate decision may be taken.”
The petition was filed as a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) by Salek Chand Jain, who argued that since the formation of the National Commission for Minorities, almost all its Chairpersons have come from only two communities — Islam and Sikhism.
His counsel informed the Court that, as per official records, there have been 16 Chairpersons of the Minorities Commission so far — 14 were Muslim and 2 were Sikh.
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The petitioner’s lawyer said that this trend was unfair to members of other recognized minority groups.
He requested the Court to issue directions to the government to also consider people from Christian, Buddhist, Jain, and Zoroastrian (Parsi) communities for the post of Chairperson of the Commission.
The Court, however, pointed out that there is no such requirement in the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992. The Bench observed that Section 3 of the Act does not say that each minority community must be represented in the Commission.
The judges clarified,
“The only provision is that five members, including the Chairperson shall be from the minority community. The provision does not provide that the members or Chairperson should be from any particular minority community.”
After reviewing the plea, the Court concluded that it could not pass any specific order and that it was up to the government to take a decision on such matters.
Therefore, the Bench disposed of the petition while allowing the petitioner to take up his grievance with the Central government directly.
With this, the Court once again emphasized that appointments to the National Commission for Minorities are guided by the law, and not by a requirement to represent each minority community separately.
The order ended with the Court granting liberty to the petitioner to approach the authorities concerned and make a representation for consideration.
Case Title:
Sri Salek Chand Jain v Union of India Through its Secretary & Ors
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