Background: Commemorated on December 18, Minority Rights Day highlights the 1992 UN declaration on minority rights.
Relevance: GS 2 (Polity & Governance)
- Constituent Assembly Debate: Articles 25-30 were enacted to protect minority rights.
- Purpose: Ensures cultural preservation alongside individual rights.
- Judicial Interpretation: Recent rulings reaffirm minority rights as part of the Constitution’s basic structure.
- Defining Minority :The Constitution does not explicitly define ‘minority’. The Supreme Court has held that minorities should be defined at the state level, allowing groups like Hindus in Punjab and Kashmir to claim minority rights.
- Supreme Court Judgments :Recent judgments, including those on Aligarh Muslim University (2024) and St. Xavier’s College Society (1974), have reaffirmed that Article 30 ensures equality and non-discrimination. The right under Article 30 is part of the Constitution’s basic structure.
Provisions:
- Article 25: Freedom of conscience and free profession, practice, and propagation of religion.
- Article 26: Freedom to manage religious affairs.
- Article 27: Freedom as to payment of taxes for promotion of any particular religion.
- Article 28: Freedom as to attendance at religious instruction or religious worship in certain educational institutions.
- Article 29: Protection of culture, language, or script of minorities.
- Article 30: Right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions.
- Article 350A & B: Education in the mother tongue and a special officer for linguistic minorities.
- Defining Minority: Determined at the state level (e.g., Hindus in Punjab).
