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Muslims remain a minority in UP

	April 09, 2007

A Division Bench of the Allahabad High Court on April 6 stayed a single judge’s controversial judgement denying minority status to Muslims in Uttar Pradesh. Justice S.N. Srivastva on April 5 had ruled that Muslims could not be treated as a religious minority in the state. He had given the ruling after considering various criteria including the population of Muslims as enumerated in the Census reports of 1951 and 2001. The judgement was given on a writ petition filed by a madarsa in Ghazipur district challenging out-of-turn grant in aid to certain other minority institutions.



The division bench stayed Justice Srivastva’s order after the Mulayam Singh Yadav government moved an urgent application challenging the single bench judgement. Advocate General S.M.A. Kazmi said in the court, “Hundreds of welfare schemes run

by the State Government would be affected by Justice Srivastva’s judgement and all the benefits accruing to Muslims under those schemes will come to an end.” The division bench said the special leave applications of the state would be taken up simultaneously.



The single-judge ruling had drawn adverse criticism across the political spectrum. Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh said that the verdict was unacceptable. Observers say that the verdict coming two days before the first phase of polling in the Assembly elections was likely to cause polarisation among political parties. Muslim leaders alleged that it smacked of bias and politics.



Former Chief Justice of India V.N. Khare said the division bench has done well to stay the order since it was unsustainable in law.