BIG DEBATE - Muslims are 68% in J&K, why they are still considered minority?

New Delhi: The Supreme Court recently asked the Centre and the Jammu and Kashmir government to decide whether Muslims in the state can be treated as the minority.

Describing it a "very important issue", the apex court bench of Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul gave both the governments four weeks time to decide the contentious issue after the Central government said that it has decided to discuss the issue with the state.

The court order came on a PIL alleged that minority benefits are being enjoyed by majority Muslims in the state.

The petitioner in the case - Ankur Sharma – had contended that Muslims constituted 68% of the state's population and thus were not a "minority" in the state.

The PIL had contended that the benefits offered under the Prime Minister's 15-point guidelines for the welfare of minorities should go to religious and linguistic minorities in Jammu and Kashmir.

Sharma had also sought the setting up of a State minority commission in the J&K.

However, in response to the PIL, the J&K government said, ''J&K is not the only state where the minority declared by the National Commission for Minorities (NCM) was a majority.''

It also cited the cases of Meghalaya, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Punjab and Lakshadweep where minority as declared by the NCM was in majority.

WATCH the Zee Media big debate on the issue here.