State can Regulate Minority Institutions: SC – Burning Issues – Free PDF Download

• The Supreme Court held that the state has the rights to introduce a regulatory regime in the national interest to provide minority educational institutions with well-qualified teachers so that they can achieve excellence in education.
• The verdict said that Article 30(1) (right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice) was neither absolute nor above the law.
• The regulatory law should however balance the dual objectives
• A regulation framed in the national interest must necessarily apply to all institutions regardless whether they are run by majority or minority as the essence of Article 30(1) is to ensure equal treatment between the majority and minority institutions.
• The court explains how to strike a “balance” between the two objectives of excellence in education and the preservation of the minorities’ right to run their educational institutions.
• For this, the court broadly divides education into two categories – secular education and education “directly aimed at or dealing with preservation and protection of the heritage, culture, script and special characteristics of a religious or a linguistic minority.”

 Background

• The judgment came after the validity of the West Bengal Madrasah Service Commission Act of 2008 was challenged.
• This Act mandated that the process of appointment of teachers in aided madrasahs would be done by a Commission, whose decision would be binding.
• Madrasahs are recognised as minority institutions.

Minority Educational Rights

• Right to Cultural and Educational Rights (Article 29 and 30)
• Article 29 of the Constitution of India – Protection of interests of minorities.
• Article 30 of the Constitution of India – Right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions. Pai Foundation case
• It held that only the State can determine the status of a religious or linguistic minority and religious and linguistic minorities, who have been put on a par in Article 30, have to be considered State-wise.
• The right under Article 30(1) cannot be such as to override the national interest or to prevent the Government from framing regulations in that behalf.
• Any regulation framed in the national interest must necessarily apply to all educational institutions, whether run by the majority of the minority. Such a limitation must necessarily be read into Article 30.
• P.A. Inamdar & Ors. vs. State of Maharashtra case,2005: The Supreme Court delivered a unanimous judgment by 7 judges declaring that the
• The state can’t impose its reservation policy on minority and non-minority unaided private colleges, including professional colleges.
• Up to the level of undergraduate education, the minority unaided educational institutions enjoy total freedom.
• Pramati Educational & Cultural Trust & Ord. Union of India & Ors case
• 1967 Constitution Bench judgment in Azeez Basha

The issue:

• The question of whether the AMU was established by Muslims was important to decide whether Article 30 (1) of the Constitution applied to it.
• Once Article 30 (1) applies to an institution, it has the freedom to reserve seats for students belonging to the community it represents.

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