Minority institutions asked to submit details

Updated on: Tuesday, March 30, 2010

New Delhi: An education watchdog has asked nearly 1000 aspiring minority institutions to submit details about community-wise enrolment of students to decide whether minority status should be granted to them.

The National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI), a statutory body to safeguard the constitutional and legal rights of minorities, decided to ask for details about community-wise enrolment as the aspiring institutions have not submitted any documents to justify that they cater to the educational need of minorities.

As per the Supreme Court direction, a substantive population of students in minority institutions should belong to the community which has established the institution.

"Some of the aspiring institutions have not given any documents to suggest that substantive student population are from the minority group now I have asked for affidavits from them with details about percentage of students from different communities studying in the institutions, " NCMEI Chairperson Justice M S A Siddiqui told PTI.

There are about 1000 institutions which have applied for minority status. The commission will decide whether to grant minority status to them in view of the Supreme Court direction, he said.

"In applications, some of the institutions have said, they have five per cent or ten per cent students from minority community. The question is whether this is a reasonable extent to claim minority status in view of the court decisions," he said.

Siddiqui said the commission will examine community-wise student enrolment to be furnished by the institution and decide the matter in next hearing in April and May. He said as per Article 30 of the Constitution, the minorities have right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.

The Supreme Court in the case of T M A Pai Foundation & Others vs State Of Karnataka & Others has in 2002 ruled that it is upto the state government to prescribe percentage of students from minority community in a minority institution keeping in view the population in the locality and their educational needs.

The apex court in another case of P A Inamdar vs State of Maharashtra in 2005 has observed that the minority institutions must cater to the minority people and admission of students from non-minority sections should be peripheral.

"The Commission (NCMEI) has power to check abuse and misuse of Article 30 of the Constitution," he said. Despite repeated requests from a minority education watchdog, state governments are yet to fix a formula for percentage of students from minority community in institutions meant for them, he said.

"We have asked the state governments to fix percentage of students from the minority community to be enrolled in any minority institutions set up by the community. None of the states have responded to our request," Siddiqui said.

Minority institutions asked to submit details

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