Judgment

Dharmadhikari, J.—The appellant is an organization representing a section of Jain community. It approached by writ petition the High Court of Bombay seeking issuance of a mandamus/direction to the Central Government to notify ‘Jains’ as a ‘minority’ community under section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992 (shortly referred to as the Act).

2. Section 2(c) of the Act defines minority thus:-

“Minority, for the purposes of this Act, means a community notified as such by the Central Government;”

3. The High Court of Bombay by the impugned order simply disposed off the petition on the ground that the claim of various communities to the status of ‘minority’ for purpose of seeking constitutional protections is one of the main issues pending before a bench of eleven judges of this Court in the case of TMA Pai Foundation [2002 (8) SCC 481].

4. This appeal stood adjourned on several dates awaiting the judgment in the TMA Pai Foundation case. In the counter affidavit filed the Central Government stated that they would abide by the judgment of the eleven judges’ Bench in TMA Pai Foundation case and thereafter consider the claim of Jains to the status of minority comm