The Delhi High Court has declined a request to direct the government to consider a broader range of minority communities, excluding Muslims and Sikhs, for the position of Chairperson of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM). A judicial panel, including Chief Justice DK Upadhyay and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela, stated that the NCM Act requires the commission to comprise members from minority communities but does not specify that the chairperson must belong to a particular community.
The court emphasized that Section 3 of the NCM Act stipulates that the commission will have a chairperson, vice-chairperson, and five members. However, it does not mandate that all members, including the chairperson, must represent every minority community. The bench noted, “The provision does not provide that the members or the chairperson shall be from a particular minority community.”
The court granted the petitioner, Salek Chand Jain, permission to submit a formal representation to the government concerning his concerns about inadequate representation. The court indicated that any such representation would be given due consideration.
In his petition, Jain had highlighted that Section 3 of the Act requires the chairperson and members to be from minority communities. He pointed out a historical trend where, out of 16 chairpersons appointed to date, 14 have been Muslim and two have been Sikh. Jain argued that this has led to a lack of representation for other minority groups, including Christians, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, and Jains.