High Court asks national commission to determine status of minority schools in six months

Schools told to file applications before commission seeking declaration of status

The High Court of Karnataka on Friday asked the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions to determine within six months the status of schools claiming to be “minority educational institution” and directed the petitioner-schools to file applications before the commission for determination of their status.

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Subhro Kamal Mukherjee and Justice P.S. Dinesh Kumar passed the order while disposing of a batch of appeals filed by several schools, including National Public School group, challenging the January 16, 2017 verdict of a single judge.

“The status of a party [school] cannot be decided by the court, as it involves factual determination. We feel that when there is a National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions, constituted under the statute, and the said authority must determine the status of the parties [schools]. We, therefore, grant liberty to the individual schools to make their individual representation to the commission seeking for declaration of their status — be it religion or linguistic,” the Division Bench said.

The commission, the court said, would have to determine the individual cases as expeditiously as possible, preferably within 6 months from the date of making application by the individual schools.

The Division Bench, in its interim order passed on February 28, 2017, continued the stay on the Government Order of June 28, 2014, through which the private schools without having “minority status certificate” from competent authorities were compelled to fill up 25% seats under the RTE quota up to Class 8. The Division Bench had also directed the State government not to impose any obligation or regulate the management of the petitioner-schools, in compliance of the Right to Education Act, particularly, in the matter of admission of students under the Act.

The single judge, while holding that the RTE quota is applicable for those schools having no “minority status certificate” from the competent authority, had vacated the stay granted against the June 18, 2014 Government Order and had also directed the schools to earmark additional 10% seats, in addition to 25% annual RTE quota, every year to complete the backlog seats created because of earlier stay order.