NEW DELHI/LUCKNOW, 7 April 2007 — The Allahabad High Court yesterday stayed the ruling of a single judge bench of Justice S.N. Srivastava that Muslims could not be considered minorities in the state following a review petition filed by the Uttar Pradesh government earlier in the day.
The Uttar Pradesh government yesterday moved a special appeal against the Allahabad High Court ruling on Thursday. Uttar Pradesh Advocate General S.M.A. Kazmi said Thursday’s verdict could have far reaching consequences and could not be taken casually.
“In view of the sensitivity of the matter, we are going to request the court to forthwith stay Thursday’s order,” Kazmi told reporters.
“A detailed review of the order would be done later,” he added.
While staying the earlier verdict, the bench comprising Justice S.R. Alam and Justice Krishna Murari termed it as violative of basic judicial propriety.
“Since another division bench had stayed a similar case dealing with the same questions of law, it was against judicial propriety for a single-judge bench to hear the matter at all,” Justice Alam observed in the open court.
The court has fixed May 14 as the next date for hearing in the case.
Congress leader and eminent lawyer Kapil Sibal, who is in Lucknow, questioned the haste with which Justice Srivastava issued the verdict just before the court was going to rise at 4 p.m.
“This was against the basic guidelines repeatedly issued by the Supreme Court,” Sibal remarked, adding that he found it strange that the judge mentioned in the order that he was in a hurry to issue the operative portion of the order because he had been transferred to the Lucknow bench.
Justice S.N. Srivastava on Thursday gave the ruling on a writ petition filed by Ghazipur-based madrasa Noor-ul-Islam, challenging the out of turn grant-in-aid given to other minority institutions.
The court also asked the UP government to treat all Muslim institutions applying for grant-in-aid at par with other nonminority institutions without any discrimination.
Justice Srivastava gave this ruling after considering several criteria including population of Muslims as stated in 1951 and 2001 census reports, which, he said, amply demonstrated that Muslims had ceased to remain a minority.
He stated: “After applying the twin criterion of population and strength of a religious community as laid down by the founding fathers of the Indian constitution, as is clear from the proceedings of the constituent assembly, the court finds that Muslims have ceased to be a religious minority community in Uttar Pradesh.”
Kazmi said: “We have challenged the ruling as it was inconsistent with law... There was no occasion to pass this order. Second is the merit of the judgment, it will come up for discussion next week and we will get to know if the court was capable to pass such an order.”
Describing Thursday’s ruling as “unfortunate,” Samajwadi Party chief and UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav said: “This judgment is a very unfortunate one... We will definitely appeal and get the order reversed.”
Muslims form 20 percent of the population in UP, as per the state government figures released in 2005.
With the first phase of UP assembly polls beginning today, Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh said: “The judgment of the Allahabad High Court holding that Muslims are no longer a minority is not acceptable. We will go for appeal and if need be, press for a law in the Parliament.”
The All India Muslim Personal Law Board (AIMPLB) questioned the ruling by citing a previous Supreme Court judgment. AIMPLB member and senior advocate Zafaryab Jilani said: “The seven-judge bench of the apex court ruled in its order dated Aug. 12, 2005, in the case of P.A. Inamdar vs. State of Maharashtra, that any community comprising less than 50 percent of the total populace is to be treated as a minority.”
“We will approach the Supreme Court, if need be, to challenge the Allahabad High Court decision that denies minority status to Muslims in UP,” Shahi Imam of Jama Masjid Syed Ahmad Shah Bukhari said.
“Muslims are in a minority in the country and they should get all the benefits accorded to minorities,” Imam of Fatehpuri Mosque Mufti Mohammed Mukarram said. Describing Thursday’s ruling as “unreasonable,” Union Law Minister H.R. Bharadwaj said: “We are not accepting it, we will seek its annulment.”
Criticizing it as “wrong and baseless,” Communist Party of India (Marxist) issued a statement: “It is surprising that such judgments are emanating from the higher judiciary which goes contrary to the basic facts and established law.”
Taking a similar stand, Communist Party of India said that the verdict “refuses to see that social realities prevail not only in UP but also in the entire country” and it will deprive rights of Muslims as a community.
Lest the judicial stay spell electoral gains for Mulayam Singh and loss for his Jan Morcha, former Prime Minister V.P. Singh blamed the UP government for Thursday’s ruling. “Everybody knows that religious minorities are determined at the national level and not at the state level. It is certainly negligence on the part of the Mulayam government in conducting the case or they consciously decided to mishandle the case so that they could come up as their (Muslims’) saviors later.”
