CHENNAI: The Madras high court on Wednesday quashed a government order that said

should admit not less than 50% of students belonging to the community concerned every year to retain the status.

The order dated April 5, 2018, had brought in the additional guideline for grant of minority status to educational institutions.

Allowing the plea moved by the Institute of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, Justice T Raja said the state government did not have the power to pass such orders under the National Commission for Minority Educational

Act, 2004.

The petitioner had argued that the government order suffered from executive malafide as it sought indirectly to deny minority status to educational institutions established and administered by minority communities by imposing a burdensome and impractical condition, modifying the principles that have stood the test of time.

In the absence of any complaint from a minority community that its students had been denied admission in an institution run by it, there was no basis for the government order, the petitioner said.

‘Common rule won’t work as TN has 6.1% Christians’

There cannot be a common rule throughout the state to admit a minimum of 50% minority students in such institutions as a condition for minority status, while the Christian population was only 6.1% in the state, the petitioner said.

The Supreme Court has time and again held that the

gain minority character because they were established and administered by the minority community and not because of the number of minority students admitted therein. If the minority status was linked to the ratio of admission of minority students it will be fluctuating in minority character/status, each year. There will never be a certainty in the nature of the institution. That was not the intention of the founding fathers of the Constitution and therefore, the judgment of the apex court cannot be misinterpreted by the executive authorities, the petitioner argued.