New Delhi: The Supreme Court will hear on March 6 a petition filed by the former Deputy Chief of the Army Staff seeking a directive to the Government to stop forthwith the head count of Muslims in the armed forces.

A three-Judge Bench, comprising Justice B.N. Agrawal, Justice A.K. Mathur and Justice Dalveer Bhandari, during `mention time' on Tuesday posted the matter for hearing on March 6, though senior counsel Rajiv Dutta pleaded for early listing of the petition.

The petition also sought a directive to exempt the armed forces from providing information to the Rajinder Sachar committee on the number of Muslims serving the Navy, the Army and the Air Force.

Initially, the Bench asked counsel to approach the High Court. However, he submitted that the move would divide the armed forces, which is known for its professionalism. The Bench said it would come up for hearing on March 6 in the normal course.

The petitioner, Lt. Gen R. S. Kadyan, contended that if a list of head count of Muslims was prepared, it would create in the minds of the minority community a feeling of their being less in number in the defence forces, and as such give them a cause of some sort of fear from the majority community. Further, the reported head count would amount to discrimination and creation and treatment of them as a separate class.

The petitioner said secularism was one of the strongest pillars of the structure of the defence forces. "Their recruitment and deployment in war and counter insurgency scenario and their promotions, appointments and awards are based purely on merit and competence.

Members of all religious denominations have fought wars in all sectors and have risen to the highest ranks," he said.

He contended that any head count of any minority community within the defence forces was divisive in nature and would divide the people of the country.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail