Maharashtra FYJC admissions: Minority institutions challenge state decision to apply quota on non-minority seats

Citing various court judgements from the past in similar cases, the petition filed by the association states that the minority institutions are not required to maintain social reservations. Calling it arbitrary and capricious, the association in its petition states that such an imposition is without any authority of law.

As per the established practice, 45 per cent of the total intake in minority institutions is kept open to all students, irrespective of category, after reserving 50 per cent for the particular minority, and 5 per cent for management quota. However, starting this year, the FYJC admission portal is reflecting that SC/ST/OBC reservation is applied on those 45 percent seats. This has sparked major controversy in FYJC admissions this year.

The association had also written to the state government last week, registering their dissent over the decision. The minority institutions have not only opposed the decision but also had raised questions on how it was applied without any intimation or formal announcement in this regard. “With no response from the government, the petition was filed,” said the principal of city colleges who is familiar with the developments.

However, the state government’s education department had insisted that it was notified through a Government Resolution (GR) dated May 6.

The concerned sentence in that GR, states, “If admissions are lower than the intake capacity in minority quota, admissions can be given as per interchanging between linguistic and religious minority groups. Even after that, if seats remain vacant, those surrendered vacant seats will be filled based on the centralised admission process where all social and parallel reservations are applicable.”

While according to colleges, this sentence is pertaining to the left-over seats in minority quota, the government officials emphasised that this very sentence implied that social reservation will be applicable to all open (non-minority) seats in minority colleges. In addition to the confusion caused by this, a correction was issued to the May 6 GR to alter instruction about surrendering of the quota seats. This corrective GR issued on June 2, erased that sentence which according to the state had implied social reservation to all open seats in minority colleges.

In its plea filed on Tuesday, the association sought direction from the court to education authorities to take immediate steps to correct/update the online admission portal for class 11 admissions for the member institutions in Maharashtra. The plea sought that the same should be done by deleting/removing the social reservation quota (SC/ST/OBC Reservation quota) and updating/rectifying the in-house and management quota as per the May 6 Government Resolution (GR) like quota and seat distribution followed in Academic Year 2024-25.

The association further sought that paragraph in the June 2 GR pertaining to minority quota admissions, which was removed from the June 6 GR be declared as arbitrary and unconstitutional and same be set aside. Pending hearing, the Association sought stay on the paragraph in June 2 GR that substituted the relevant portion in the May 6 GR.

However, a new corrective GR was issued on June 10 which brought back the same sentence along with additional inputs from the May 6 GR.

Apart from the association, a minority-trust from Solapur – S.A.P.D.J. Pathshala – which runs various education institutions, has moved the Bombay High Court with a separate petition in the same issue. Whereas similar petitions have been filed with Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court.