Further, the power of the State governments to enact legislation for the protection and promotion of the interests of minorities is derived from the Concurrent List and not from the State List (List II of Schedule VII), the affidavit stated.
“It will not be out of context to mention that in fact there is no heading under List II of Schedule 7 where under the State Legislature could have enacted law on the subject of minorities except under Entry 20 in the Concurrent list,” the Central government submitted.
If the view that the states alone have the power to enact law on the subject of minority in accepted, then in such case, Parliament will be denuded of its power to enact law on the said subject, and this would be contrary to the constitutional scheme, the Centre made it clear.
That said, the states are also empowered to notify ‘minorities’ in exercise of its powers, it was submitted. In this regard, the examples of Maharashtra and Karnataka were cited.
“The Government of Maharashtra has notified ‘jews’ as minority community within Maharashtra. Moreover, the Government of Karnataka has notified Urdu, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi, Tulu, Lamani (or Lambadi), Hindi, Konkani and Gujarati languages as minority languages within the State of Karnataka,” the affidavit highlighted.
Hence, the petitioner is not correct in contending that the state governments cannot declare certain communities as minorities. Therefore, the petition must be dismissed as the same is wholly untenable and misconceived in law, the Ministry said.
Source: Barandbench
