The Tamil Nadu government has constituted an empowered committee, led by the Chief Secretary, to scrutinise applications for conferment of minority status on educational institutions. It has also framed criteria for these institutions to claim the status. Among them is the requirement of admitting a certain number of students belonging to their communities.
The government has also put in place a mechanism for the Directorate of Minority Welfare to receive these applications through a portal. The committee will meet once in three months and examine the applications.
The institutions seeking the minority status are to fulfil six criteria. “In the case of self-financing educational institutions imparting professional courses of education established and administered by any minority community, they shall admit students of that minority community alone, not exceeding 50% of the sanctioned strength.”
Vacancies in the 50% of the seats shall be filled only on the basis of merit and from the common merit list prepared by the competent authority, according to one of the criteria laid out in the government order, which was issued recently.
Such educational institutions should have been established by the minority communities and should be continuously administered only by members of that minority. An educational institution which was originally not established by a minority community cannot acquire the status subsequently under any circumstance.
All the trustees or members of the Governing Body of these institutions shall belong only to the minority community concerned. “To decide whether an applicant is a minority or not based on religion or language, the total population of that minority community in the State of Tamil Nadu shall be taken into consideration and not the population of that community in any particular region where the institution is situated.”
The Directorate of Minorities Welfare would be the nodal office to receive applications for the the status from all types of institutions — schools, arts and science colleges, technical education institutions and agriculture, law, medical colleges.
Published - January 03, 2023 12:49 am IST
