The National Commission for Minorities: Why It Exists

In one line

The National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992 gave statutory status to a body that had existed by executive resolution since 1978, and section 2(c) defines a minority as a community notified as such by the Central Government.

Section 1

Short title, extent to the whole of India, and commencement on such date as the Central Government may by notification appoint.

Why statutory status mattered

Four differences between an executive body and a statutory one, and they are the answer to why the Act was passed.

Existence. An executive body exists by resolution and may be abolished by resolution. A statutory body exists by law and can be abolished only by law, which requires Parliament.

Powers. An executive body has only such powers as the resolution gives, and none that bind anybody. A statutory body may be given the powers of a civil court, and section 9(4) gives them.

Accountability. An executive body reports to the Government that created it. A statutory body's report is laid before Parliament with a memorandum of the action taken and the reasons for non-acceptance, under section 13, which is a form of public accountability a resolution cannot create.

And permanence of function. A statutory body's functions are fixed by section 9 and cannot be narrowed administratively.

A candidate who gives those four has explained the Act's purpose without needing any history.

Section 2: the definitions

Section 2(a): Commission means the National Commission for Minorities constituted under section 3.

Section 2(b): Member means a Member of the Commission and includes the Vice-Chairperson.

Section 2(c): minority, for the purposes of the Act, means a community notified as such by the Central Government.

Section 2(d): prescribed means prescribed by rules made under the Act.

Section 2(c), and why it is the heart of the question

Four consequences, and MU's question turns on all four.

There is no definition. The Act does not say what a minority is; it says who decides. A statute that defines its protected class by executive notification has delegated the most important question in it.

The class can be enlarged or reduced administratively. A notification may be issued or amended without legislation, which is more flexible than articles 341 and 342, where only Parliament may vary a list, and correspondingly less secure.

The statutory class differs from the constitutional class. Article 30's minorities are identified judicially, by reference to the population of the State and to a basis of religion or language. The Act's minorities are those the Central Government has notified. So a community may hold article 30 rights and be outside the Commission's remit.

And a community not notified has no standing before the Commission at all, whatever its position, because section 9's functions all operate on minorities as the Act defines them.