PIL in Kerala HC to reassess if Muslims, Christians in state need minority status

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Kerala High Court on Thursday urged it to direct the Union government to reassess whether Muslims and Christians in Kerala should continue to be considered in the list of minority communities. A bench of Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly, after hearing the arguments on behalf of the petitioner organisation — Citizens Association for Democracy, Equality, Tranquility and Secularism (CADETS) — said that it will pass orders in the matter.

CADETS, represented by advocates C Rajendran and K Vijayan, contended that the list of minorities in Kerala has to be re-determined and sought a direction to the National Commission for Minorities to do the same. The organisation claimed that the Muslim and Christian communities in Kerala have progressed tremendously in the fields of socio-economic development and education and therefore, their minority status requires to be re-determined and no preferential treatment should be given to them. It has also sought a direction to the commission to evaluate the progress of the two communities in Kerala.

The Kerala government recently announced that it will restructure minority scholarship based on the 2011 census. This came after the Kerala High Court’s order that quashed the existing norm of providing scholarships in 80:20 ratio to Muslims and Latin Christians and converted Christians, saying it was 'legally unsustainable.'

Amid protests by opposition parties against the change in rule, the Kerala government on Thursday announced that it will move the Supreme Court as per the legal advice received, the Times of India reported. Reportedly, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan announced that there should not be a controversy on the matter and said that no one should create communal divide on the issue.

As per the 2011 Census, the state has a minority population of 26.56% Muslims, 18.38% Christians, 0.01% Buddhists, 0.01% Jains and 0.01% Sikhs. The state government said that the minority scholarship will be redistributed based on this Census data.