- 20 July, 2025
New Delhi, July 20, 2025: The National Minorities Commission, a key body entrusted with safeguarding minority rights in India, remains headless and non-functional, with all key positions—including the Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson—lying vacant. The commission currently has no Christian representation and has been without one for the past five years.
Set up under the National Commission for Minorities Act of 1992, the Commission is mandated to have one member each from the six notified minority communities: Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, and Jains. However, all seven posts, including the Chairperson, have remained unfilled following the retirement of the previous members.
Former Vice-Chairperson George Kurian, the last Christian representative, retired on 31 March 2020. Since then, no Christian has been appointed to the Commission. The last Chairperson, Iqbal Singh Lalpura, who represented the Sikh community, retired in April. He had earlier contested the Punjab Assembly elections on a BJP ticket but was defeated.
Although the Delhi High Court had directed the Union Government in 2021 to fill the vacant positions promptly, no progress has been made. For the last two years, the Commission has been completely inactive. Previously, even when some members were in place, the absence of Christian representation was widely criticised.
Meanwhile, the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI), which functions under the Ministry of Education to safeguard the educational rights of minorities, is also severely hampered. The Commission, formed in 2004, is intended to function as a quasi-judicial body and advise on matters related to minority education. However, since the retirement of Justice Narendra Kumar Jain in September 2023, only one member, Shahid Akhtar, remains. All other positions, including the judicial head, are vacant.
The NCMEI’s role includes offering recommendations and ensuring legal rights for minority-run educational institutions. It should ideally have three members, including a chairperson with a judicial background, but these posts remain unoccupied.
Both the National Minorities Commission and the NCMEI are supposed to have counterparts at the state level. Yet, many states still lack functioning minority commissions. Despite repeated appeals and internal representations, including by Christian and Muslim BJP leaders from Kerala, the Central Government has shown no urgency in making fresh appointments.
As minority communities continue to voice concerns, especially in light of recent communal violence in places like Manipur, the absence of active commissions is raising serious questions about the protection of minority rights in India.
Source: Deepika News
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