Just what makes ‘minority’? Govt pays for unclear wording

Private educational institutions have already begun urging the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions to grant them “minority status” to insulate themselves from reservation demands. If denied, they may move the courts.

MRHD officials hope the proposed amendments to the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act will take care of this.

The amendments approved by the parliamentary standing committee empower the commission to withdraw the minority status of institutions who misuse it. But without a clear-cut definition, this may not be free of controversy.

A background note prepared by the MRHD last year on regulating private institutions had acknowledged this lack. “The methodology for granting minority status to an institution should be provided,” it had said.

The Supreme Court had said minority status should be determined taking states as units, which would mean a Sikh would not be a minority in Punjab but a Hindu would be one in Jammu and Kashmir. But it did not define “minority character”.

There are other limitations too. The commission covers the five religious minorities — Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, Parsis and Christians — in its schedule whereas the constitutional protection under Article 30 is for “religious and linguistic minorities”.

The demographic profile of students is being proposed as a criterion under which a minority institution must have a certain percentage of students from its own community.

“This is too has its problems though. Delhi’s St Stephen’s College was given minority status by the SC while it had only 12 per cent Christian students,” a commission source said.