National Commission for Minorities (NCM)

It is a statutory body set up in 1993 under the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992.

The commission is made up of:

All are to be nominated by the Central Government from amongst persons of eminence, ability, and integrity.

Tenure: Each Member holds office for a period of three years from the date of assumption of office.

Unlike other bodies like NCSC and NCST, NCM has no constitutional backing or status.

It works under the Ministry of Minority Affairs, and before the formation of this ministry it came under the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

Section 2 of the NCM Act stipulates that ‘Minority’ for the purposes of the Act means a community notified as such by the Central Government.

Initially, five religious communities namely Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Zoroastrians(Parsis) were notified as minority communities. In 2014, Jains were also notified as another minority community.

Some state viz. Andhra Pradesh, Assam , Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi , Jharkhand, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Manipur, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal have also set up State Minorities Commissions.

There’s no prescribed selection process for making appointments with the Cabinet Appointments Committee arbitrarily picking up names from a list suggested by the “nodal” ministry.

Constitution of India has not defined word ‘Minority’ and only refers to ‘Minorities’.

It speaks of minorities ‘based on religion or language’ and rights of minorities have been spelt out in Constitution in detail.

Six religious communities, viz. Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Zoroastrians (Parsis) and Jains have been notified in Gazette of India as minority communities by Union Government all over India.