The Hindu : 'Minority institutions have preferential right'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Aug 15, 2003

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'Minority institutions have preferential right'

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI Aug. 14. The Supreme Court today ruled that the minority educational institutions had a preferential right to admit students of their own community or language and no such rights existed so far as the non- minority educational institutions were concerned.

A five-Judge Constitution Bench headed by the Chief Justice V.N. Khare, however, made it clear that "national interest would prevail even over minority rights" and the State could regulate admissions in professional colleges, both the minority and the non-minority, and merit should be the criterion for admission.

The Bench said the States could prescribe the percentage of admission by the Government and management according to the local needs. Provisions had to be made for the poorer and backward sections of society. And admission shall be made through a common entrance test and counselling.

However, a different percentage could be fixed for the unaided minority institutions to be filled by management and the rest filled on the basis of counselling by State agencies. While fixing the percentage, apart from local needs, the interest/need of that community in the State must be kept in mind, the Bench said and added "the need of the community in the State would be paramount, vis-à-vis, local needs".

The Bench clarified that a minority professional college could admit, in its management quota, a student of its own community/language in preference to a student of another community even though that student was more meritorious. However, while selecting the students of its community inter-se merit of those students could not be ignored.

The Bench was categorical that it was impossible to control profiteering/charging of capitation fees unless it was ensured that admission was on the basis of merit.

The Bench rejected the contention of unaided colleges that they should have their own test for admission of students. Pointing out that each college was collecting Rs. 500 to Rs. 1000 on an application, the Bench said it would impose a heavy burden on the students who would necessarily have to apply to a number of colleges.

To obviate this difficulty, the Bench said there shall be a common entrance test conducted by the State or by an association of all colleges of a particular type, medical or engineering. If it was found that any student had been admitted de-hors merit, penalty could be imposed on that college and in appropriate cases recognition/affiliation might also be withdrawn.

Referring to the plea of certain institutions like the Christian Medical College, Vellore, and the Islamic Academy of Education that they should be permitted to admit in the manner in which they had been doing all these years, the Bench said the request could be considered by a Committee headed by a retired judge of the High Court.

The Committee, the Bench said, would have the power to monitor the admission made by unaided professional colleges under the management quota. It shall have power to consider request from minority colleges to permit them to admit students in excess of the quota fixed, if the needs were genuine and also to grant exemption to any college or vary the percentage of quota fixed by the State.

The Bench made it clear that its direction to constitute two sets of committees in each State shall remain in force till appropriate legislation was enacted by Parliament.

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