Supreme Court: The matter of giving special status to educational institutions administered by minorities will be investigated

Will an educational institution administered by members of a minority community result in the status of a minority institution? The Supreme Court has agreed to investigate this matter. A bench of Justices BR Gavai and BV Nagarathna has issued notices to the Uttar Pradesh government, National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions, National Medical Commission, and others seeking their response in the matter.

Hearing their appeal

The top court was hearing an appeal filed by the Mahayana Theravada Vajrayana Buddhist Religious and Charitable Trust challenging the Allahabad High Court order, which held that the administration of an educational institution by a minority alone would not confer minority institution status. The high court was considering a petition against the order of the Uttar Pradesh government, where the state government refused to treat the institute as a minority institution.

What did the Allahabad High Court say?

The High Court had held that thus for an institution to qualify as a minority institution under the Uttar Pradesh Private Vocational Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Free Determination) Act, 2006, it must not only be administered by a minority Should be an institution rather it should be established by minority and it should also be notified by the state. The petitioner trust established a medical college in 2001 and the members of the trust later converted to Buddhism in 2015 and continued to administer the institution. The High Court, in its order, had said that it does not find any illegality in the state government's decision not to treat the educational institution of the trust as a minority institution to keep it out of the purview of the 2006 Act.

The High Court held that establishing and administering an institution are two different events. If a society or trust did not include members of a minority community (either linguistic or religious) at the time it established an educational institution and subsequently attained minority status. and commences the administration of the such institution, in our opinion, the educational institution concerned shall neither be a minority institution within the Act, 2006 nor a minority educational institution within the Act, 2004.

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