SC postpones hearing on minority status for non-Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir by four weeks

The Supreme Court on Friday postponed the hearing of the case regarding the minority status for non-Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir by four weeks.Attorney General KK Venugopal in Supreme Court on Friday complained that Jammu and Kashmir government has opted to go back on its word to set up a minority commission in the state to identify non-Muslims as minority groups, said media reports.Responding to the attorney general's complaint, the Jammu and Kashmir government, according to ANI, told Supreme Court that the state minority commission was taking all steps to make a blueprint in the case.Delhi BJP leader and lawyer Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay in November last year had filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court seeking minority status for Hindus in Mizoram, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Lakshadweep apart from Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir, News18 had reported.[caption id="attachment_4341469" align="alignleft" width="380"]

File image of the Supreme Court. AP[/caption]Upadhyay had contended that Hindus were treated as a majority in these states despite being a minority in the population.The Supreme Court in November last year had refused to entertain the petition, saying that the issue needed to be decided by National Commission for Minorities and had asked the petitioner to approach the commission, The Times of India had reported.In December 2017, the apex court observed that it could not direct the Jammu and Kashmir legislature to legislate on the issue and had posted the matter for hearing after eight weeks.The Supreme Court, however, had asked the Centre to deliberate on constituting a minority commission in Muslim-majority Jammu and Kashmir.In August 2017 also, a PIL was filed by Jammu-based lawyer Ankur Sharma, stating that in a Muslim majority state like Jammu and Kashmir, non-Muslims should have been granted minority status to avail benefits of various governmental schemes.With inputs from agencies