NEW DELHI, 9 February, 2021 (TON): The SC on Tuesday has sought a reply from the government on the plea seeking transfer of cases from High Courts to it and challenging the Center’s notification to declare five communities as minorities.

The High Courts at Delhi, Meghalaya and Guwahati are already seized of the petitions challenging the constitutional validity of section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992. In October 1993, the notification was issued under this Act, which declared the five communities as minorities across the country. The transfer plea filed by advocate Ashwini Upadhyay argued as a result of this notification, majority population of Sikhs in Punjab and Muslims in Jammu and Kashmir have received benefits, which were originally meant for minorities.

Notices issued to the Ministry of Minority Affairs , Minitry of Law and Justice and Ministry of Home Affairs by a bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde, accompanied by Justices A S Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian, while Senior advocate C S Vaidyanathan represented Upadhyay in the matter in the top court.

It is likely that the issue will be resolved as the Upadhyay had moved the top court seeking transfer of all the cases from High Court to itself.