Page 1 of 17
European Journal of Business &
Social Sciences
Available at https://ejbss.org/
ISSN: 2235-767X
Volume 07 Issue 03
March 2019
Available online: https://ejbss.org/ P a g e | 1066
Minority Rights under the Indian Constitution
Mukesh Jakhar
Deptt. of Law, Research Scholar, M. D. University, Rohtak(HR)
Abstract: The term minority is a well versed one in the various arenas of life and academic circle.
As per oxford English dictionary, the literal meaning of minority is, “The smaller number or part,
especially a number or part representing less than half of the whole”. The features of
postcolonial governance of India have long been held up as a success story: “the world`s largest
democracy, whose citizens enjoyed freedom of speech and religious tolerance. In this backdrop
this paper will look into the constitutional rights of the minorities in India. The recent political
developments in India have witnessed conflicts and tension between the majority communities
and the minority communities in many parts of the country. Thus rendering the question of
minority group rights and protection of their identity central to the political discourse of India. In
this context, this piece of paper of intends to throw some light on various provision of Indian
constitution. This paper also intends to analyse how minorities are being treated in the
constitution of India.
Keywords: Constitution of India, Minorities, Right to Equality.
MINORITY RIGHTS UNDER THE INDAIN CONSTITUTION:
Part III of the Constitution of India, dealing with the fundamental rights of citizens of India,
embodies both the common rights and the specific rights of minorities in our country.
COMMON RIGHTS OF MINORITIES UNDER THE CONSTITUTION:
(ART.14 TO 28)
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The following fundamental rights and freedoms are the common rights of minorities
guarantees under the Constitution of India.
1. Art. 14- It provides the equality before law. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
covers the same rights under Art.7
2. Art.15- It provides for the prohibition of discrimination on the ground of religion, race,
caste, sex or place of birth, which is dealt in Art.23 of the UDHR.
3. Art. 16- It provides for equality of opportunity in matters of public employment which in
the UDHR is dealt in Art.23.
4. Art. 19- It provides for protection of certain rights regarding speech, expression, etc.
which in the UDHR is dealt in Art.19.
5. Art.20- It provides for protection for protection in respect of conviction of offences
which in the UDHR is dealt in Art.10.
6. Art. 21- It provides for protection of life and personal liberty which in the UDHR is dealt
with Art 3.
CULTURAL AND EDUCATIONAL RIGHTS:
ART. 29-PROTECTION OF INTEREST OF MINORITIES:
Any Section of citizens residing in the territory of India or any part thereof having distinct
language, script or culture of its own shall have right to conserve the same.
In Re Kerala Education Bill, 1957 1
As held thus"Under cl. (1) of Article 29 any section of the citizens residing in the territory of
India or any part thereof having a distinct language, script or culture of its own has the right to
conserve the same. It is obvious that a minority community can effectively conserve its
1
supra 7.
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ISSN: 2235-767X
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language, script or culture by and through educational institutions and, therefore, the right to
establish and maintain educational institutions of its choice is a necessary concomitant to the
right to conserve its distinctive language, script or culture and that is what is conferred on all
minorities by Art.30 (1) which has hereinbefore been quoted in full. This right, however, is
subject to cl. 2 of Art. 29, which provides that no citizen shall be denied admission into any
educational institution maintained by the State or receiving aid out of State funds on grounds
only of religion, race, caste, language or any of them." After holding that Article 30(1) is subject
to clause (2) of Article 29, this
Court further held thus:
"There is no such limitation in Art. 30(1) and to accept this limitation will necessarily involve the
addition of the words "for their own community" in the Article which is ordinarily not
permissible according to well-established rules of interpretation. Nor is it reasonable to assume
that the purpose of Art. 29(2) were to deprive minority educational institutions of the aid they
receive from the State. To say that an institution which receives aid on account of its being a
minority educational institution must not refuse to admit any member of any other community
only on the grounds therein mentioned and then to say that as soon as such institution admits
such an outsider it will cease to be a minority institution is tantamount to saying that minority
institutions will not, as minority institutions, be entitled to any aid. The real import of Art.29 (2)
and Art. 30(1) seems to us to be that they clearly contemplate a minority institution with a
sprinkling of outsiders admitted into it. By admitting a non- member into it the minority
institution does not shed its character and cease to be a minority institution."
In The State of Bombay vs. Bombay Education Society & Ors2
In this case, a Society consisting
of members of Anglo-Indian community whose mother tongue was English set up an institution
in the then State of Bombay. The State of Bombay in the year 1955 issued an Order that no
2 AIR 1955 (1) SCR 568.
