The Supreme Court has come out against the practice of listing religious groups as 'minority communities'. The listing should be discouraged and gradually done away with as it promotes divisive tendencies to weaken the nation.

A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice RC Lahoti, Justice DM Dharmadhikari and Justice PK Balasubramnyan made the observation while disposing of a petition demanding minority status for the Jain community recently. The bench reminded the Minorities Commissions set up by the Union Government and state governments that the goal of the Constitution was to create social conditions where there was no need to shield or protect rights of minority or majority communities.

"The Commissions, instead of encouraging claims from different communities for being added to a list of notified minorities, should suggest ways and means to help create social conditions where the list of notified minorities is gradually reduced and done away with altogether," Justice Dharmadhikari said.

The Bench accepted the Union Government’s stand that it was for the states to determine whether Jains were a minority community depending on their social condition in their respective states. "In a caste-ridden Indian society, no section or distinct group of people can claim to be in majority. All are minorities amongst Hindus. Many of them claim such status because of their number and expect protection from the State on the ground that they are backward," the Court observed.

The Court said if each minority group felt afraid of the other group, an atmosphere of mutual fear and distrust would be created posing serious threat to the integrity of the nation leading to sowing of the seeds of multi-nationalism. "It is therefore necessary that Minority Commission should act in a manner so as to prevent generating feelings of multi-nationalism in various sections of people of Bharat," Justice Dharmadhikari said. The commissions were set up to direct their activities to maintain integrity and unity of India by gradually eliminating the minority and majority classes, he added.

Noticing reorganisation of states on linguistic basis, the Court said, "Differential treatments to linguistic minorities based on language within the state is understandable but if the same concept for minorities on the basis of religion is encouraged, the whole country, which is already under class and social conflicts due to various divisive forces, will further face division on the basis of religious diversities."

Claims for minority status based on religion would increase as various sections would hope for getting special protections, privileges and treatment as part of constitutional guarantee, the Court said. Encouragement to such fissiparous tendencies would be a serious jolt to the secular structure of the constitutional democracy. “We should guard against making our country akin to a theocratic state based on multi-nationalism," the Court cautioned.