The Delhi High Court, the top court for the national capital region, issued a directive to the federal government to respond to the petition seeking explanations for prolonged vacancies in the federal National Commission for Minorities (NCM). The bench of Chief Justice D.K. Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela observed on Oct. 15 that vacant posts of the commission chairperson, vice-chairperson and five members have rendered it ineffective and inoperative.
The court responded to a public interest litigation filed by Mujahid Nafees, convenor of the Minority Coordination Committee, an organisation focused on the welfare of minorities. In the petition, Nafees alleged that the government’s negligence in filling the top posts was a violation of constitutional safeguards for the minorities in the country. The National Commission for Minorities Act 1992 mandates the federal government to constitute the commission as a quasi-judicial body to safeguard the rights of minority communities. The commission remained largely defunct after several of its members moved out since November 2024, following completion of their five-year term.
Religious minorities form around 18 percent of India’s 1.4 billion people, more than 80 percent of whom are Hindus. Muslims are the largest minority community, forming 14.2 percent of the population, followed by Christians at 2.3 percent and Sikhs at 1.7 percent. The other religious minorities are Buddhists and Zoroastrians, the latter also known as Parsis. The Commission is mandated to have one member each from the six notified minority communities: Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, and Jains.
