New Delhi: India’s National Commission for Minorities (NCM) the country’s principal statutory body for safeguarding minority rights has become virtually defunct at a time when discrimination complaints are rising sharply, official data presented in Parliament this week has revealed.
A written reply by Minority Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju in the Rajya Sabha on December 3 confirmed a dramatic spike in pending cases from minority groups over the past five years, even as the Commission continues to function without a Chairperson or members.
The NCM has remained headless since former Chairperson Iqbal Singh Lalpura stepped down in April 2025. With no new appointments made, all seven statutory posts including the Chairperson, Vice-Chairperson, and representatives for each notified minority community lie empty, leaving the Commission unable to carry out its quasi-judicial responsibilities.
The institutional paralysis has coincided with an alarming buildup of unresolved complaints. Muslim complainants saw pending cases increase from three in 2020–21 to 217 in 2024–25, while pendency for Christian complainants rose from zero to 42 in the same period.
Officials attribute the surge not to more complaints, but to the near-disappearance of case disposal since the Commission stopped functioning.
The NCM once processed complaints efficiently. In 2020–21, it resolved 1,102 of the 1,105 complaints filed by Muslims and all 103 cases filed by Christians. But by 2024–25, the disposal rate had fallen steeply: the Commission resolved only 638 of 855 Muslim complaints and 53 of 95 Christian cases.
The backlog has continued to grow even as the number of new complaints has dropped a trend legal experts say signals declining public faith in the institution rather than declining incidents of discrimination.
In Parliament, MPs IB Inbadurai and KR Suresh Reddy pressed the government for answers on when the Commission would be reconstituted and whether interim mechanisms were in place to prevent a breakdown in its functioning.
Minister Rijiju maintained that the Commission “continues to take up grievances with concerned authorities,” despite having no members. However, the mounting backlog paints a contradictory picture.
The government offered no timelines or commitments for filling the vacancies, stating only that it “endeavours to appoint” the required officials.
Legal experts warn that the Commission’s collapse has left minority communities with no institutional recourse.
Supreme Court advocate Anas Tanwir said minorities are increasingly forced to approach the courts directly, adding, “With the Commission disbanded in practice, there is no institutional mechanism left. The actual data of discrimination now lies in court filings.”
Though fewer complaints are being filed, activists argue that this signifies disillusionment, not improvement in conditions. Many instances of discrimination, they say, go unreported because complainants believe their grievances will not be addressed.
Congress MP Mohammad Jawed remarked that the data available “shows only a fraction of the truth,” adding that many people “are not even in a position to complain” or have their complaints registered properly.
Human rights activist John Dayal, a former member of the National Integration Council, criticized the government for allowing a key constitutional safeguard to collapse.
He noted the irony that Pakistan often criticized by India for its treatment of minorities has recently granted constitutional status to its national minority commission, while India’s own federal body remains vacant.
Dayal warned that the failure to protect minority rights enables broader institutional bias:
“Government agencies read the mind of the government. When the state shows no respect for minority rights, that tendency trickles down to law enforcement and the administration, causing a miscarriage of justice.”
With the world’s largest democracy heading into a politically charged period, minority groups fear that the continued absence of an operational Commission could deepen the sense of insecurity and marginalization among vulnerable communities.
The prolonged vacancy in the NCM, coupled with rising discrimination complaints and falling case disposal rates, has raised widespread concerns about the deterioration of institutional protections meant to uphold India’s constitutional guarantees of equality and justice for all.