A/HRC/10/8/Add.3 page 11 ‘minority’ community, the Supreme Court indicated that [m]inority as understood from constitutional scheme signifies an identifiable group of people or community who were seen as deserving protection from likely deprivation of their religious, cultural and educational rights by other communities who happen to be in majority and likely to gain political power in a democratic form of Government based on election. […] Statistical data produced to show that a community is numerically a minority cannot be the sole criterion. If it is found that a majority of the members of the community belong to the affluent class of industrialists, businessmen, professionals and propertied class, it may not be necessary to notify them under the Act as such and extend any special treatment or protection to them as minority”. 26. Since the identification of minority status has to be done on a state basis, Sikhs also voiced their concerns with regard to their minority rights. While Sikhs represent about 1.9 per cent of India’s population according to the 2001 census, the share of Sikhs in the state of Punjab is about 59.2 per cent. The state government granted minority status to the Sikh community and issued a notification in 2001 which permitted the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) to give a 50 per cent quota to Sikh students in colleges run by it. This notification, however, was struck down by the High Court on a petition filed by students who had failed to secure admission to colleges run by SGPC. The High Court decided that “in the State of Punjab, it cannot be held that Sikhs were such a group of persons who apprehended deprivation of their religious, cultural and educational rights by other communities, who were in majority and who were likely to gain political power”13. On 15 February 2008, the Supreme Court upheld the High Court’s order. 27. Further problems can arise for members of the Scheduled Castes, especially when they want to convert to a different religion, since government benefits for Scheduled Castes are by law limited to Hindus, Sikhs and Buddhists. The Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order 1950 provided that no person who professes a religion different from the Hindu religion shall be deemed to be a member of a Scheduled Caste. This provision was subsequently amended in 1956 and 1990 to also include Sikhs and Buddhists.14 However, the Special Rapporteur’s interlocutors pointed out for example that Sikhism and Buddhism did not recognise the caste-system. She was also informed that when a member of a Scheduled Caste left Hinduism and converted to Christianity or Islam, the previous caste status and related social bias would often remain at the social level while the person would legally no longer be eligible to government benefits for Scheduled Castes. In some cases, there are separate churches and cemeteries for members of the Scheduled Castes who converted to Christianity. 28. The legal link between Scheduled Caste status and affiliation to specific religions seems problematic in terms of human rights standards. The Special Rapporteur would like to recall that the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination noted with concern that Dalits who convert to Islam or to Christianity to escape caste discrimination reportedly lose their entitlement under affirmative action programmes, unlike converts who become Buddhists or Sikhs (A/62/18, 13 High Court of Punjab and Haryana, Sahil Mittal v. State of Punjab and Other, judgement of 17 December 2007. 14 See Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Orders (Amendment) Act 1956; Constitution (Scheduled Castes) Order (Amendment) Act 1990.