Centre alone can accord linguistic minority status, rules High Court

The High Court on Thursday said the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions does not have the jurisdiction to grant the linguistic minority status. The court said that only the Union government can accord the linguistic minority status.

While dismissing the petition filed by Indus Trust, an international school located in Sarjapur, Justice Raghavendra S Chauhan said that the Commission's power to accord minority (linguistic) status does not come under the jurisdiction of Section 11(f) of the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act 2004. Section 11(f) talks about the functions and powers of the Commission —  to decide all questions relating to the status of any institution as a minority educational institution and declare its status.

The petitioner, the trustees belong to Marwari, Telugu and Marathi speaking linguistic minority had approached the High Court seeking quashing of the order passed by the Commission on June 6, 2016 dismissing the school's application seeking linguistic minority status. The Commission in its order had stated, “Linguistic minorities are outside the purview of the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act.  The petition of the school cannot be entertained by the Commission, hence dismissed.”

Justice Chauhan upheld the order of the Commission and said that the power to grant minority status is held only by the Central government. 

Government counsel Pramodhini Kishan had submitted during the hearing that a four-member minority committee constituted by the state government is headed by the Commissioner of Public Instructions.

The committee does the spot inspection and verifies the documents of the institution to ensure 25% of the students in the institution are from the minority community. The state government only certifies the minority status for the institution, but it is only the Central government that declares the institution as the 'minority', the counsel had submitted.