On Wednesday, the Supreme Court made serious objections to what it termed as a new form of fraud in Haryana in which people with backgrounds in the majority upper-castes converted to Buddhism just to be able to get minority quota benefits. The court wanted the Haryana chief secretary to give a detailed report on the process and guidelines of giving minority certificates in the state.
The case was brought to court on a petition hearing of a petition by a Hisar resident called Nikhil Kumar Punia who was seeking admission as a minority candidate due to his professed Buddhist faith. The bench that included the Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi, had enquired deeply into the social and community background of the petitioner.
Turning to Punia the Chief Justice inquired, directly, You are a Punia? What minority are you? Let me ask this bluntly now. Which Punia are you?” Upon presentation by the counsel representing the petitioner that the petitioner was a member of the Jaat Punia community, the Chief Justice asked him how he could consider himself a minority. The counsel to him replied that Punia had changed to become a Buddhist and that religious conversion was his constitutional right.
The CJI reacted, and in a sharp response, said, Wow! This is fresh form of fraud and this is what the court is concerned about the possible abuse of minority reservation by the way of opportunistic religious conversions.
The bench ordered the Haryana chief secretary to provide the official instructions on giving minority certificates and clarifying whether persons belonging to upper-caste general categories could claim to be minority simply because they have converted. The observations by the Supreme Court have highlighted the necessity to be more critical and open in giving certificates to ensure the reservation benefits are not misused in the state.
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