Criteria To Determine Minority Status Of Educational Institution Under Article 30 : Supreme Court Explains In AMU Case

In the Aligarh Muslim University case, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, in the majority judgment, outlined key criteria for determining an educational institution's entitlement to minority rights protection under Article 30(1) of the Indian Constitution.The key points from the judgment are as follows :'Establish' and 'administer' must be read conjunctivelyBased on precedents, the judgment explained that the rights to establish and administer must be read conjunctively and not disjunctively.The judgment also stated that Article 30(1) cannot extend to a situation where the minority community which establishes an educational institution has no intention to administer it. A religious or linguistic community may establish an educational institution and yet not administer it. This is evident from Article 28(2) of the Constitution which states that Article 28(1) will not apply to an educational institution which is administered by the State but was established under an endowment or a trust which require religious instruction to be imparted. It is quite possible that a member or a group belonging to the minority community wishes to establish an institution but intends to accept greater State regulation and lesser autonomy for the community. In that case, putting a 'minority' tag on such an educational institution merely because it has been established by a person or a group belonging to a religious or linguistic minority would not be permissible under Article 30(1). An educational institution established by a minority, whether linguistic or religious, can give up their right to claim the benefit under clause (1) of Article 30. The right can be given up consciously by waiver. This may occur where administration has been consciously and willingly entrusted to the State. Therefore, to determine whether an educational institution is a minority educational institution, a formalistic test such as to whether it was established by a person or group belonging to a religious or linguistic minority is not sufficient. The tests adopted must elucidate the purpose and intent of establishing an educational institution for the minority. Both the establishment and the administration by the minority must be fulfilled cumulatively for that.Article 30(1) applies to educational institutions established before the commencement of the ConstitutionA distinction between educational institutions established before and after the commencement of the Constitution cannot be made for the purposes of Article 30(1). Article 30 will stand diluted and weakened if it is to only apply prospectively to institutions established after the commencement of the Constitution. The protection and guarantee, if made applicable to only institutions established after the commencement of the Constitution, would debase and defile the object and purpose of the provision. Minority status is not surrendered merely because an institution was created by a statute The word 'establish' as used in Article 30(1) cannot and should not be understood in a narrow and legalistic sense. The words used in clause (1) of Article 30 have to be interpreted in view of the object and purpose of the article, and the guarantee and protection it confers. The guarantee and protection are not dependent on the basis or the manner in which the legal requirements were/are complied with, rather it concerns the persons who have founded and created the establishment. The incorporation by a statute or the procedure and requirements in law are not determinative factors. The persons behind it, that is, the promoters and founder(s) are important. They should belong to a linguistic or a religious minority. There will always be individuals and groups instrumental in catalysing and setting up the institution. Thus, giving a legal character to an educational institution through state or sovereign action, it does not ipso facto follow that the university so established deprives the group of persons/individuals the guarantee under clause (1) of Article 30 of the Constitution.The minority character of the institution is not ipso facto surrendered upon the incorporation of the UniversityIt cannot be argued that a university was established by Parliament merely because the long title and preamble of the statute incorporating the university states that it is an Act to establish and incorporate. If such a formalistic interpretation is adopted, fundamental rights would be made subservient to legislative language.Community need not be 'Minority' before the commencement of the ConstitutionThe demography of the Dominion of India underwent a drastic change upon partition. The Constitution, through Article 30(1), confers a right on those communities that were disadvantaged upon the commencement of the Constitution and not the group that was disadvantaged in pre-independent India.We reject the argument that the test of whether an educational institution is a minority institution must be examined based on whether...

Criteria To Determine Minority Status Of Educational Institution Under Article 30 : Supreme Court Explains In AMU Case

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