Point of law: except for a limited power of making an exclusion or inclusion in the list by an act of Parliament, there is no provision either to sub-divide, sub-classify or sub-group the castes which are found in the presidential list of Scheduled Castes. In our considered view, the Union Government in contemplation of section 2(c) of the Act, 1992 has notified six communities as minority communities in India which includes Muslims and Christians

JUDGMENT :

SHAJI P. CHALY, J.

1. This is a Public Interest Litigation filed by an Advocate who is also claiming to be a public spirited person acting for the common cause of the society, particularly related to minorities in the State of Kerala. Petitioner is a member of Roman Catholic community, which is one of the minority communities. The grievance highlighted by the petitioner is that while most of the socio, economic and educational empowerment schemes and programmes of the Central Government are meant for the socio economically poor and downtrodden sections of the society including the six centrally notified minorities, while implementing various schemes in the State of Kerala there is marked discrimination favouring one minority against other minority communities without any rationale.

2. According to the petitioner, in order to translate the intention of the framers of the constitution and to safeguard the minority communities and to protect them from discrimination and deprivation of their rights, the Union Government had set up the National Commission for Minorities under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, hereinafter called, Act, 1992. It is the case of the petitioner that, as per section 20 of the said Act, minority community for the purpose of the Act means, communities notified as such by the Central Government. Therefore, according to the petitioner, six religious communities viz. Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Zoroastrians (Parsis) and Jains have been notified in the gazette of India as minority communities by the Union Government.

3. It is further submitted that the functions of the National Commission in contemplation of section 9 of Act, 1992 make it clear that it should govern the overall development of the minority communities without any undue favour to any particular community. Thereafter, on 9.3.2005, a notification was issued by the Central Government for the constitution of a High Level Committee to prepare a report on the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community of India known as “the Prime Minister’s High Level Committee” chaired by Justice Rajindar Sachar.

4. The Committee consisted of 7 members and it has submitted a report to the Prime Minister on 17.11.2006 with various recommendations and findings. The recommendations include; (1) set up an equal opportunity commission to look into the grievances of the deprived groups like minorities; (2) create a nomination procedure to increase participation of minorities in public bodies; (3) establish a determination procedure that does not reserve constituencies with high minority population for scheduled castes; (4) increase employment share of Muslims, particularly where there is great deal of public dealing. Work out mechanisms to link Madrasas with Higher Secondary School Board and (5) recognise degrees from Madrasas for eligibility in defence, civil and banking examinations.

5. Anyhow, in 2006, the Union Government under the Prime Minister’s New 15 point programmes for the welfare of minorities announced scholarship schemes for minority students from minority communities. On the basis of the scheme formulated, the Union Government is providing scholarships to students belonging to minority communities to promote pre-matric and post-metric financial assistance. Scholarships are also given on merit cum means basis. According to the petitioner, nowhere it is stated that scholarships shall be provided to any particular minority community in preference to other minority communities.

6. Therefore, the legal contention advanced by the petitioner is that the scheme formulated by the Union Government is in accordance with the constitutional principles as well as the provisions of Act, 1992 and the Kerala State Commission for Minorities Act, 2014. Exhibit P1 produced by the petitioner is a scheme published by the Unio