New Delhi, June 9
At a time when the tussle between UT Administration and St John’s High School in Chandigarh has raised a significant legal question on whether institutes with small percentages of minority students can claim minority status, the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI) has said it is the responsibility of state governments to fix percentages of minority students to be admitted to certified minority institutes within their jurisdiction.

“We have no powers to prescribe such percentages. The Supreme Court has left it to state governments and UTs to fix percentages of minority students to be admitted across levels from primary and college to professional institutes, depending on the educational needs of the localities in question,” Commission chairperson Justice MSA Siddiqqui today told The Tribune in an exclusive interview.

He asked states to urgently notify these limits as per the apex court directions, which were meant to bring clarity on this vexed issue. Currently, scores of applications for grant of minority status are reserved for orders in the Commission, which wants to satisfy itself about whether the institutes are serving the interests of minorities or not. The NCMEI Act requires institutes to reflect their intentions to benefit minorities.

In the past three years from January 1, 2007, to March 2010, a whopping 2,267 institutes have been granted minority status by the Commission, which means 58 such institutes have been recognised each month. Implications of recognising institutes as minority are huge as these institutes enjoy sweeping powers to self-administer under Article 30 of the Constitution.

Justice Siddiqui today admitted that minority institutes enjoyed great constitutional protections. “They can have their own governing body unlike other institutes; they can freely appoint teaching and non-teaching staff; they need not reserve seats for SCs, STs, OBCs and they can raise a reasonable fee structure on their own. We hope the states execute their powers and notify what percentage of minority students should be considered “sizeable” in which locality,” he said.

In the past, the Commission has repeatedly reminded states to notify the percentages of minority students for minority institutes. Sources within the NCMEI said the state authorities have so long evaded the issue for the sheer political sensitivity it involves. But in the absence of prescribed limits on minority percentages to be taken into minority institutes, unnecessary delays occur, though the Commission has so far disposed of 6,689 cases out of 7,898 filed before it. “The Supreme Court judgment in this regard is clear. They allow minority institutes to admit students from their community up to a level of 50 per cent. But we need to know what this level should be. States have a responsibility here,” he said, adding he was for using the NCMEI Act to open centres of excellence and not teaching shops.