The Madras High Court has said that educational institutions run by religious and linguistic minorities need not follow the rule of reservation with respect to SC, ST, and OBC students. The court has also held that the government cannot compel such institutions to provide reservations to such candidates.

In a judgement passed on September 29, the court held that minority educational institutes, even if they receive aid from state governments, are not required by constitutional provisions to practice social reservation.

The court said that Article 15(5) of the Constitution of India exempts minority educational institutes from the ambit of communal and social reservation. “We have no hesitation to hold that the concept of Communal reservation or reservation for Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other Backward Classes of citizens would not apply to minority institutions,” the High Court said.

Further, the Court also held that minority status, once granted to an educational institute, cannot be taken away at the whim of the state government.

The Court was hearing a petition filed by the Justice Basheer Ahmed Sayeed College for Women seeking the quashing of a government order that had cancelled the minority status of the college.

Advocate General R Shanmugasundaram, who appeared for the state government, told the court that the petitioner-institute was receiving aid from the state, and its minority status had been cancelled as the institute had exceeded the 50% cap imposed by the state on admitting Muslim minority students each academic year.