‘Govt. can move National Commission against minority educational institutions’
CHENNAI, FEBRUARY 13, 2019 00:00 IST
HC records undertaking that eligible students shall not be denied admission
The Madras High Court has made it clear that the State government can approach the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI) if it receives complaints accusing any minority school in the State of refusing to admit eligible minority candidates despite availability of sufficient number of seats.
Justice T. Raja granted the liberty while allowing a batch of over 130 writ petitions filed by minority institutions against the government’s stipulation to fill up at least 50% of seats with minority candidates. The cases were allowed after recording an undertaking that the petitioner institutions shall not deny seats to eligible minority students.
Assailing a government order issued by the School Education department on April 5, 2018, senior counsel Fr.A. Xavier Arulraj contended that the GO requires every minority institution in the State to admit not less than 50% of seats with minority students every year failing which they would have lose their minority status.
Claiming that such a stipulation amounted to interference with the administration of minority schools and was directly against the judgments passed by the Supreme Court in the famous TMA Pai Foundation case, the counsel said that it would be impractical to follow the stipulation because the number of minority and non-minority students would keep fluctuating.
Despite welcoming the government’s objective to ensure that more number of minority students get admitted in minority schools, he said the problem arose only when such admission was linked to grant of minority status. If only 10 minority students were available in a year, the schools could not be forced to admit only 10 non-minority students to maintain the 50:50 ratio, he argued.
However, Special Government Pleader C. Munusamy brought it to the notice of the court that the 50% criteria was not a rigid one and the government had no intention to withdraw minority status of an institution even if minority students were not available to fill up 50% of the seats.
“It is only when admission is denied within 50% limit, action will be taken,” he clarified.
CHENNAI, FEBRUARY 13, 2019 00:00 IST
HC records undertaking that eligible students shall not be denied admission
The Madras High Court has made it clear that the State government can approach the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI) if it receives complaints accusing any minority school in the State of refusing to admit eligible minority candidates despite availability of sufficient number of seats.
Justice T. Raja granted the liberty while allowing a batch of over 130 writ petitions filed by minority institutions against the government’s stipulation to fill up at least 50% of seats with minority candidates. The cases were allowed after recording an undertaking that the petitioner institutions shall not deny seats to eligible minority students.
Assailing a government order issued by the School Education department on April 5, 2018, senior counsel Fr.A. Xavier Arulraj contended that the GO requires every minority institution in the State to admit not less than 50% of seats with minority students every year failing which they would have lose their minority status.
Claiming that such a stipulation amounted to interference with the administration of minority schools and was directly against the judgments passed by the Supreme Court in the famous TMA Pai Foundation case, the counsel said that it would be impractical to follow the stipulation because the number of minority and non-minority students would keep fluctuating.
Despite welcoming the government’s objective to ensure that more number of minority students get admitted in minority schools, he said the problem arose only when such admission was linked to grant of minority status. If only 10 minority students were available in a year, the schools could not be forced to admit only 10 non-minority students to maintain the 50:50 ratio, he argued.
However, Special Government Pleader C. Munusamy brought it to the notice of the court that the 50% criteria was not a rigid one and the government had no intention to withdraw minority status of an institution even if minority students were not available to fill up 50% of the seats.
“It is only when admission is denied within 50% limit, action will be taken,” he clarified.
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