The Supreme Court on Monday asked the government to respond to a petition filed by six Uttar Pradesh residents that the government is discriminating against Hindus by providing religious minorities with welfare schemes worth thousands of crores.
A Bench led by Justice Rohinton F. Nariman issued the notice on the petition, which said welfare schemes cannot be based on religion. The plea, filed by Neeraj Shankar Saxena and five others, claimed that Hindus were discriminated against on the ground of religion, as schemes worth ₹4700 crore were initiated in favour of only some religious minorities.
“The government and Parliament cannot promote minoritism and cannot show inclination towards them and allure them to flourish by initiating beneficial programs for them. Such an action will be detrimental for the sovereignty and integrity of India and give rise to separatists and may create a situation for another division of the nation,” the petition said.
It also challenged the validity of the establishment of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) .
“The Parliament cannot make any law for the benefit of any religion maybe, for minority religious groups. Special benefit and advantage within the sweep of Article 15(4) can be provided only to those communities who are found ‘socially and educationally backward’ classes of citizens by a Commission established under Article 340 of the Constitution of India. From tax payer money, no religion or religious groups can be promoted and therefore, no Minority Commission can be created to achieve the purposes enumerated in the Act,” the petition said.
The government cannot be invested with the power to declare any community as a 'minority community', it stated.
