Madras HC stays GO mandating 50% Minority Reservation in State Minority Institutions

The Madras High Court on Tuesday stayed the Tamil Nadu government’s move to make it mandatory for minority institutions to take in a minimum of 50 percent students every year from the minority community they claim to represent..A Government Order (GO) issued to this effect last April has been challenged in a writ petition filed by the Institute of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, a Christian society which runs a number of minority educational institutions in Tamil Nadu. .With respect to the minority schools run by the petitioner, it has been argued that it is unreasonable to expect Christian students to comprise 50 percent of the total admitted students, when the percentage of Christians only comprise 6.1 percent of the population in Tamil Nadu..The petition points out that this problem would arise with respect to other minority institutions as well..“The impugned GO does not consider the fact that it will be impossible for microscopic minorities like Christians, Buddhists and Sikhs to artificially boost the number of admission from their own community to the level of 50%.”.The Government’s evaluation of the minority status of an institution based on the number of minority students has itself been challenged. As stated in the petition,.“The Hon’ble Supreme Court has time and again held that the minority institution gains its minority character because it is established and administered by the minority community and not because of the number of minority students admitted therein. .If the minority status is linked to the ratio of admission of minority students it will be fluctuating in minority status every year. There will never be a certainty in the nature of the institution. That is not the intention of the founding fathers of the Constitution…”.This, among other grounds, have lead the petitioner institution to contend that,.“By stipulating a fictitious percentage of admission of minority students, the impugned GO seeks to deprive the Constitutional protection guaranteed to minority institutions….…The impugned GO destroys, curbs and interferes with the right of the minorities to establish and administer the institutions of their choice….…[it] is attempting to scuttle the right of minorities in exercise of Art. 30 (1).“.The petition was admitted earlier this week by Justice SS Sundar, who also proceeded to pass an order of interim stay, noting that the conditions imposed in the GO were impractical. The order states,.“This Court satisfies that prima facie, it is impossible for admitting not less than 50% of students, belonging to Minority Community in the Petitioner-Institution, which has been declared as Minority institution. Hence, there shall be an order of interim stay for a period two weeks.”.The Government had issued the directive last April, on the rationale that minority status and allied benefits under Article 30 of the Constitution are given to certain educational institutions with the object of subserving the interest of students belonging to minority communities..Opining that minority institutions in the State have not prioritised this objective, the Government had ordered that all educational institutions, including Teacher Training Institutes, under School Education Department claiming minority status should admit not less than 50% of the minority concerned in every academic year..Further, if the applications received from the minority community are less than 50 percent, the institution is required to admit all such minority students unconditionally and without any screening..The minority institutions had also been ordered to submit a report on the students so admitted at end of September every year..However, the petitioner has prayed for quashing the GO on the ground that it is arbitrary, unreasonable and unworkable. As noted in the Court’s order above, the matter will be taken up next in two weeks..Read the Order:.Read the GO dated April 5, 2018: