Minority Benefits

Author(s): Babita Jain
Publisher: Shrut Samvardhan Samsthan

Page 48

institution was not defeated. The management of a minority institution cannot resort to the device of admitting the minority students of the adjoining state in which they are in majority to preserve minority status of the institution. Reference may, in this connection be made to the following observations made in the case of T.M.A. Pai (Supra):
"........If so, such an institution is under an obligation to admit the bulk of the students fitting into the description of the minority community. Therefore the students of that group residing in the State in which the institution is located have to be necessarily admitted in a larger measure because they constitute the linguistic minority group as far as that State is concerned. In other words the pre-dominance of linguistic minority students hailing from the State in which the minority educational institution, is established should be present. The Management bodies of such institutions cannot resort to the device of admitting the linguistic students of the adjoining states in which they are in a majority, under the
facade of the protection given under Article 30(1)". In Inamdar's case (supra) the said proposition of law has been applied to religious minority. According to their Lordships, "if any other view was to be taken the very objective of conferring the preferential right of admission by harmoniously construing Article 30(1) and 29(2) may be distorted". It was further observed in Inamdar's case that "it necessarily follows from the law laid down in T.M.A Pai Foundation that to establish a minority institution the institution must primarily cater to the requirements of that minority of that State else its character of minority institution is lost. However, to borrow the words of Chief Justice S.R. Dass in Kerala Education Bill, "a sprinkling of that majority from the other States on the same footing as a sprinkling of non minority students would be permissible and would not deprive the institution of its essential character of being a minority institution, determined by reference to that State as a unit".
As regards the prescription of a percentage governing admissions in a minority educational institution, it would be useful to excerpt the following observations of their lordships of the Supreme Court in T.M.A. Pai foundation Case vs. State of Karnataka (2002) 8 SCC 481.
"........The situation would vary according to the type of institution and the nature of education that is being imparted in the institution. Usually, at the school level, although it may be possible to fill up all the seats with the students of the minority group, at the higher level, either in colleges or in technical institutions, it may not be possible to fill up all the seats with the students of the minority group. However, even if it is possible to fill up all the seats with students of the minority group, the moment the institution is granted aid; the institution will have to admit students of the non minority group to a reasonable extent, whereby the character of the institution is not annihilated, and at the same time, the rights of the citizen engrafted under Article 29(2) are not subverted."
ennority Benefits