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Synopsis

In a landmark verdict, the Madras High Court has held that educational institutions administered by religious and linguistic minorities are not obligated to adhere to reservation quotas for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and Other Backward Class students.

Court also emphasized that government authorities cannot enforce such reservations upon these institutions.

The bench of Chief Justice SV Gangapurwala and Justice PD Audikesavalu cited Article 15(5) of the Indian Constitution, which exempts minority educational institutions from communal and social reservation requirements.

Court ruled that minority educational institutions, even if they receive state government aid, are not obliged to implement social reservations.

However, the court clarified that the State Government would be within its Right to impose the threshold cap of admitting students from the Minority Community to 50%.

"However, in the remaining 50% seats, filled on merit from the General Category, the students of the Minority Community can also compete and be admitted on merit and the same would not be counted in the 50% threshold cap meant for the Minority students," it added. 

The judgment came in a petition filed by Justice Basheer Ahmed Sayeed College for Women. The college had challenged a government order that revoked its minority status and had also requested the court to grant it permanent minority status.

The State government's representative, Advocate General R Shanmugasundaram, informed the Court that the petitioner institution was benefiting from state assistance. He also explained that the institute's minority status had been revoked because it had exceeded the annual admission limit of Muslim minority students set at 50 percent by the State.

On the other hand, representing the petitioner college, Senior Counsel Vijay Narayan argued that the State lacked the authority to enforce a 50 percent threshold.

While partially granting relief to the petitioner college, the division bench said, "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 bench cited the Supreme Court’s judgments in Pramati Educational and Cultural Trust vs. UOI, and Ashok Kumar Thakur vs. UOI wherein it was held that "exclusion of Minority Educational Institution from Article 15(5) of the Constitution of India is not violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India, as the Minority Educational Institution, by themselves, are a separate class and the Rights are brought by other Constitutional provisions".

However, on the issue of the threshold cap of not admitting students of the concerned Minority Community beyond 50%, the division bench referred to a bunch of the Supreme Court's rulings and held that the policy of the State Government which was implemented through a government order dated June 17, 1998, which provided that in the case of self-financing Institutions, imparting Professional courses of Education, established and administered by the Minority, they shall admit students of that Minority alone, not exceeding 50% of the sanctioned strength, was "not arbitrary or unreasonable or against the provisions of any Statute, Rules or Regulations in force".

Accordingly, court held that the petitioner college had to abide by the said Government Order and admit students from the Minority Community, not exceeding 50%.

"However, while calculating the 50% of the Minority students, those students who are admitted on merit in the remaining 50%, belonging to the Minority Community, has to be excluded, because they have been admitted on their own merit competing with the others and not as students of Minority Community," the bench clarified. 

Further, while stressing that merely admitting more students than the sanctioned 50% threshold would not ipso facto permit the cancellation of the Minority status of the Educational Institution, court quashed and set aside the Government Order refusing the extension of Religious (Muslim) Minority status to the petitioner institution.

"...it is not clear from the impugned Order as to whether some of the students belonging to the Minorities are admitted on the basis of their own merit, while competing with the 50% students of non-Minorities. The same also has to be taken into consideration," said the bench. 

Apart from that, court held that Minority status is not a tenure status, ergo is not for a limited period and the Minority status of an Institution, accorded by the Competent Authority or the Commission, would subsist until the Commission cancels the same, as provided under Section 12-C of the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutes Act, 2004.

Case Title: Justice Basheer Ahmed Sayeed College for Women v. State of Tamil Nadu and Others