The State government on Thursday claimed it has the powers, not only to consider the demand for a minority religious status for a community, but even to “recognise” a community as a “minority community” under the provisions of the Karnataka State Minorities Commission (KSMC) Act, 1994.
Such a claim was made in the statement of objections filed before the High Court of Karnataka on the petitions that have questioned the State’s powers to examine the demand for grant of minority religious status for Lingayat or Lingayat/Veerashaiva communities.
“... it is within the powers of the State government, in terms of provisions of the KSMC Act, to recognise the community of Lingayats as ‘minority’ on such evaluation and; on such recognition, further request the Central government, to notify Lingayat as minorities along with six notified communities ... so as to enable the members of the said community [Lingayat] to avail and be entitled to the protection contemplated under the Constitution of India,” the government contended in its 43-page statement of objections.
The State is under the statutory obligation to consider the claim of Lingayat/Lingayat-Veerashaiva groups, in view of the provisions of the KSMC Act, which obligates the government to consider the request for recognition of a particular group as a “minority”, after considering their respective claims and representations, etc., the government has contended.
Stating that it is yet to take a decision on recognising Lingayat community as a minority community and only the inputs in this regard were sought from the KSMC based on experts’ view, the government claimed that at present, the petitioners’ right to freedom of religion is not affected and the petitions are “premature”. The government claimed that Lingayats were claiming minority tag on the lines of Jains and the government was considering their claim based on the manner in which the Union government granted recognition to Jain community as a religious minority.
Union’s stand
Meanwhile, Additional Solicitor General of India (Karnataka HC) Prabhuling K. Navadgi told the court that the Union government requires some time to file a statement as the situation arisen was an unprecedented one as no community was sought to be declared as a religion post-independence.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Dinesh Maheshwari and Justice B.M. Shyam Prasad adjourned hearing till April 3 while asking the petitioners to file their responses to State’s contentions.
Officer’s religion
Earlier, counsel representing one of the petitions questioned how an officer of the State, belonging to a different religion can file a statement on the Hindu religion and the issue of Lingayat as such an officer would not have necessary knowledge on other religions. However, the Bench asked how does the religion of an officer of the State matters as long as the officer had filed the statement on behalf of the government.
