New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a petition seeking minority status for Hindus in seven states and the Union territory of Lakshadweep, and asked the petitioner to approach the National Commission for Minorities instead.

Petitioner Ashwini Kumar Upadhyaya, who claims to be a BJP spokesperson, had argued that since Hindus were a small segment of the population at these places, they should receive the benefits that other minority groups enjoyed.

The bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Navin Sinha refused to admit the petition and asked senior advocate Arvind Datar, appearing for Upadhyaya, to approach the minority commission. Datar then sought permission to withdraw the petition.

Upadhyaya had cited the 2011 census to argue that Hindus were a minority in Lakshadweep (2.5 per cent of the population), Mizoram (2.75), Nagaland (8.75), Meghalaya (11.53), Jammu and Kashmir (28.44), Arunachal Pradesh (29), Manipur (31.39) and Punjab (38.4).

"But their minority rights are being siphoned off illegally and arbitrarily to the majority population (of these states) because neither central nor the state governments have notified the Hindus as a 'minority'.... Therefore, Hindus are being deprived of their basic rights," the petition said.

It urged the apex court to quash as "unconstitutional" Section 2(c) of the National Commission for Minority Act, issued through a government notification in October 1993, which notifies only Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and Parsis as "minority" communities. Jains were added to the list in 2014.

Upadhyaya also claimed that Muslims were the majority in Lakshadweep (96.2 per cent) and Jammu and Kashmir (68.3).

"However, they are enjoying the 'minority' status, and the communities which are real minorities are not getting their legitimate share because of non-identification and non-notification of minorities at the state level, thereby jeopardising their basic rights guaranteed under Part III (fundamental rights) of the Constitution," the petition said.