Minority Scholarship : Supreme Court Issues Notice On Kerala Govt Challenge Against HC Order Quashing 80:20 Distribution To Muslims & Christians

The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice on the special leave petition filed by the State of Kerala challenging the Kerala High Court's order which quashed the government scheme to provide minority scholarship to Muslims and Christians in 80:20 ratio.A bench comprising Justices L Nageswara Rao and BR Gavai also issued notice on the application seeking stay of the High Court judgment. Senior Advocate Chander Uday Singh appeared for the State of Kerala. As soon as the matter was taken, the bench said that it will issue notice. The bench also issued notice on two connected petitions, filed by private organizations, MSM Kerala State Committee and Minority Indians Planning and Vigilance Trust, challenging the High Court verdict.Advocate Harees Beeran, appearing in one of those petitions, pressed for a stay. However, the bench was not inclined to consider that prayer at this stage."Mr.Beeran, we are not going to stay now. We will issue notice on stay", Justice Rao said.Mr.Beeran said that he just wanted to point out that the scheme was in operation for 13 years before the High Court quashed it. "If you press it, we will dismiss your stay application", Justice Rao said.The notice is returnable within 4 weeks.BackgroundOn May 28, a division bench of the Kerala High Court had set aside the 80:20 minority scholarship scheme, observing that the state has to treat both the minority communities equally. The High Court had further directed that the minority scholarship must be distributed amongst the notified minorities in accordance with their population proportion as per the latest census. A division bench comprising Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly gave the verdict in a PIL filed by a Christian person challenging the scheme(Justine Pallivathukkal vs State of Kerala).Terming the High Court directions to be "irrational" and "erroneous", the State Government in its petition stated that the minority scholarship scheme was introduced on the basis of the reports of Justice Rajender Sachar Committee and Paloli Mohammad Kutty Committee (which was constituted by the State Government subsequent to Sachar Committee report) regarding the educational backwardness in the Muslim community.In the light of the recommendations of Paloli Muhammad Kutty Report, the Government of Kerala issued a Government Order dated 16.8.2008 pursuant to which 5000 scholarships were set apart for degree and post-graduate professional courses for Muslim girl students per year and 14 posts of clerks have been created in 14 districts. A total amount of Rs. 10 crores was set apart for the implementations of the above scholarships"...in the instant case, the Paloli Committee reported that Muslim community in the State of Kerala is far behind Christians in college enrollment and even behind Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes i.e. 8.1 % for Muslims and 28.1, 20.5, 16.7, 11.8 and 10.3 for forward Hindus, Christians, backward Hindus, SC/STs respectively. It was found that Muslims in Kerala stand far behind than the other communities in educational fields. Therefore the Scholarship programme earmarking 80% to Muslim students is within the ambit of Article 15(4) of the Constitution of India", the petition states.The petition further states that in in January 2011, the State Government extended the benefit of the scholarships given to Muslim girl students to certain members of the other minority community viz. Latin Catholics and Converted Christians(who are classified as backward communities) at the ratio of 20% of the total number of scholarships.The State Government argues that the High Court committed a "grave error" by directing to extend the minority scholarship scheme to all notified minorities in the proportion of population, without ascertaining any study regarding backwardness."It is submitted that the High Court proceeded on the erroneous assumption that earmarking of higher percentage of the scholarships to a particular minority community is discriminatory, even though it was based on the study conducted by a Committee appointed by the Government on the education backwardness of the said community. It is submitted that the High Court lost sight of the fact that giving scholarships to students belong to other minority communities without determining educational backwardness and the extent of the eligibility of such community would result in arbitrariness and the State cannot be compelled to do an arbitrary action", the petition argues.The State argues that "providing scholarships on the basis of population ratio, without conducting a study to ascertain the eligibility would result in arbitrary distribution of scholarships to ineligible candidates". The State Government further states that to ascertain the educational backwardness of Christian community, it has constituted a committee headed by a retired High Court judge (Justice...

Minority Scholarship : Supreme Court Issues Notice On Kerala Govt Challenge Against HC Order Quashing 80:20 Distribution To Muslims & Christians

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