The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed displeasure over six States and Union Territories (UTs), including Jammu and Kashmir, not giving their comments to the Centre on the issue of identification of minorities at the State level.
The status report, filed in the apex court last week, said that comments from six States and UTs — Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Lakshadweep, Rajasthan and Telangana — are still awaited.
“We fail to appreciate why these States should not respond. We give last opportunity to the Central Government to obtain their responses failing which we will presume that they have nothing to say,” said a Bench comprising Justices SK Kaul, AS Oka and JB Pardiwala.
Attorney General R Venkataramani, appearing for the Centre, referred to the recent status report filed by the Ministry of Minority Affairs which said that 24 States and six UTs have so far furnished their comments on the
issue.
When Venkataramani told the Bench that six States and UTs have not yet given their comments on the issue, the Bench said, “They cannot keep on not giving their responses. We will presume that they do not want to give responses”.
The counsel appearing for one of the petitioners said that in Jammu and Kashmir, Hindus are in minority.
The bench observed that UTs are being administered by the Centre.