Who Is a Minority

In one line

The Constitution uses the word minority four times and never defines it, so the courts had to, and they decided that a minority is a community numerically less than half the population of a State, the State and not the country being the unit.

In the wording a student can write in an exam: articles 29(1), 30(1) and 350B speak of minorities, and article 350A of linguistic minority groups, but no article defines the term. The Supreme Court supplied the definition in stages. In its advisory opinion on the Kerala Education Bill it held that a community numerically less than fifty per cent of the population of the State is a minority, and it rejected the argument that the unit should be the locality where the institution stands. In T.M.A. Pai Foundation v. State of Karnataka, eleven judges settled the question: for article 30 the unit is the STATE and not the country as a whole. Separately, section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act 1992 gives a statutory definition of a wholly different kind, a community notified as such by the Central Government, under which six communities stand notified.

The word the Constitution never defines

Where it appears.

• Article 29(1) gives the right to conserve a distinct language, script or culture to ANY SECTION OF THE CITIZENS. The marginal note says "Protection of interests of minorities", but the text is wider than the note, and that gap decides cases.
• Article 29(2) forbids denial of admission to a State-maintained or State-aided educational institution on grounds only of religion, race, caste, language or any of them.
• Article 30(1) gives ALL MINORITIES, whether based on religion or language, the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.
• Article 30(1A) requires that a law acquiring the property of a minority educational institution fix an amount that would not restrict or abrogate the right.
• Article 30(2) forbids the State to discriminate in granting aid on the ground that an institution is under minority management.
• Article 350A requires every State and local authority to endeavour to provide primary education in the mother tongue to children of LINGUISTIC MINORITY GROUPS.
• Article 350B provides for a Special Officer for Linguistic Minorities appointed by the President, who investigates matters relating to safeguards for linguistic minorities and reports to the President.

Two kinds of minority, and only two. Article 30(1) names minorities based on RELIGION and minorities based on LANGUAGE. Caste is not a ground; a Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe is protected by articles 15, 16, 17, 46, 244, 330, 332 and 335 and not by article 30. This distinction is regularly missed in answers.