New Delhi: A case was filed in the Supreme Court demanding that state governments and Union Territories across the country provide details about the status of minorities in those states and who are minorities in those states. In this regard, 24 states including Tamil Nadu and 6 Union Territories have provided information to the central government about the status of minorities in their states.
However, 6 state and union territory governments namely Telangana, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Lakshadweep have not yet informed the central government about the details of minorities. The Supreme Court had reminded the central government that the concerned state and union territory governments should provide the relevant information by December 21. The central government had also sent a reminder to the concerned state governments in this regard.
In this case, the case came up for hearing yesterday before a bench comprising of Justices SK Kaul, AS Oka and JP Parthiwala.
Attorney General R.Venkataramani, appearing on behalf of the central government, said, “24 states and 6 union territory governments have informed the central government about the details of minorities in their states. 6 states including Arunachal and Union Territory governments have not yet disclosed the information,” he said.
Then the judges said, “Why these states have not yet disclosed the information. This is not the right thing to do. Why are concerned state and union territory governments reluctant to provide information? We are dissatisfied with the actions of the state governments.
We are giving a last chance to the Central Government to get information from the concerned states in this matter. If no reply is sent, we will assume that the concerned states have not expressed any opinion,” he said.
