Religious, linguistic minority educational institutes can’t be compelled to reserve seats for SC/ STs, OBCs: Madras High Court

The Madras High Court recently held that State governments cannot compel educational institutes run by religious and linguistic minorities to follow social reservation and reserve seats for candidates belonging to the Scheduled Castes/ Scheduled Tribes (SC/STs) and Other Backward Class (OBC) categories..In a judgement passed on September 29, a bench of Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice PD Audikesavalu held that minority educational institutes, even if they receive aid from State governments, are not required by Constitutional provisions to practice social reservation.The bench said that Article 15(5) of the Constitution of India exempt minority educational institutes from the ambit of communal and social reservation..The bench cited the Supreme Court’s judgements in Pramati Educational and Cultural Trust vs UoI, and Ashok Kumar Thakur vs Union of India wherein the top court had held that the Right to Education Act did not apply to minority institutions and that Article 15(5) was not violative of Article 14 of the Constitution as minority educational institutes, by themselves, were a separate class..“In the light of the above, we have no hesitation to hold that the concept of Communal reservation or reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other Backward Classes of citizens would not apply to minority institutions,” the High Court said.Pertinently, the Court also held that minority status once granted to an educational institute, cannot be taken away at the whim of the State government..The Court was hearing a petition filed by the Justice Basheer Ahmed Sayeed College for Women seeking quashing of a government order that had cancelled the minority status of the college. The college also prayed that it be granted permanent minority status..Advocate General R Shanmugasundaram, who appeared for the State government, told the Court that the petitioner-institute was receiving aid from the State. He further said that its minority status had been cancelled as the institute had exceeded the 50 percent cap imposed by the State on admitting Muslim minority students each academic year.However, Senior Counsel Vijay Narayan, who appeared for the petitioner- college told the Court that State had no power to impose 50 percent threshold compelling the college to not admit students from the minority community beyond the said threshhold..The Court held that it saw no wrong in the State imposing such threshold as long as the College was not prohibited from admitting Muslim minority students on merit in the remaining 50 percent reserved for the general quota.However, the State cannot cancel the College’s minority status on such a ground, the Court underlined. “The scheme of the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutes Act, 2004 no way envisages grant of minority status for a temporary period or for a restricted period. The status would subsist until the Commission cancels the same..As discussed above, the Right to cancel the recognition as a Minority Educational Institution vests only with the Commission, established under the Act of 2004. Admitting more students than the sanctioned 50% threshold would not ipso facto permit the cancellation of Minority status of the Educational Institution,” the High Court said..[Read Judgement]