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Andhra Pradesh High Court
Judges : B.P.JEEVAN REDDY, UPENDRA LAL WAGHRAY
Andhra Kesari Educational Society, - Appellant
Versus
State OF A.P. - Respondent
W.P. Nos.552 & 553/86
Decided On : 10-08-87
Advocates Appeared :
Mr. K. Raghava Rao
Held : (i) All linguistic and religious minorities in the State have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice. Art. 30 confers the right upon the minority community as such, and not upon its individual members. It is not an individual right, it is the right of the community as such. Art. 30 is a facet of the right to equality, which is the single-most objective of our Constitution.
(ii) The right to establish an educational institution is not an unqualified right. It is subject to the relevant law in force in that behalf in this State;
A.P. Education Act, 1982. A minority can establish an educational institution only in accordance with the said Act and the Rules made thereunder, if any, unless of course the institutions etc. meant exclusively for imparting instruction in religious tenets or teachings or of the language of the minority concerned.
(iii) The right to administer an educational institution does not include the right to mal-administer. The State has the power to regulate and prescribe the conditions of service of teaching and non-teaching staff, the syllabus and standards of education, courses of study, the qualifications required of the staff, and all other measures in the interest of efficiency and excellence in education. Only in the matter of choosing the Managing-I Governing Body, selection of staff, disciplinary control over teachers and staff, selection of medium of instruction, and such other matters as are recognized by Courts as coming within the right to administer, is the institution free from State regulation.
(iv) An educational institution receiving aid out of State funds, in whatever measure, cannot deny admission to any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, language, or any of them. Similarly, it cannot compel anyone to take part in any religious instruction, or to attend any religious worship that may be conducted in such institution.
(v) An educational institution receiving cent-percent grant, i.e., wholly maintained out of State funds, cannot provide any religious instruction.
(vi) In the matter of affiliation and aid, a minority educational institution stands on the same par as any other educational institution. It cannot claim any special right or privilege; it shall have to abide by the conditions of affiliation, or conditions of grant, as the case may be, so long as such conditions do not impair the right to administer the institution.
(vii) An educational institution established by an individual or group of individuals- whether constituting a society or not belonging to a minority community cannot ipso facto be treated as a minority institution. The educational institution must serve and benefit the minority community, in some manner, either by promoting the language (in the case of linguistic minority) or by teaching and promoting the religion and culture Of the minority community (in the case of religious minority) or by serving the economic and educational needs of the community in some positive manner. The benefit to the community from such educational institution must be definite and real.
(viii) An educational institution which can be called a State within the meaning of Art.12 (on account of the financial aid it receives and the State control to which it is subject, or otherwise) cannot claim to be a minority educational institution.
(ix) The certificate issued by the A.P. State Minorities Commission is no evidence, much less decisive on the question whether a particular educational institution is a minority educational institution entitled to the benefit Art.30 of the Constitution. As and when such question arises, it has to be decided by the Court or by other authority, if any, empowered by law to determine the same.
W.P. Dismissed
( 1 ) WHEN does an educational institution become a "minority educational institution" within the meaning of, and for the purpose of Art. 30 of the Constitution? That is the question arising in these writ petitions. The question is of great significance because the character of a minority educational institution carrfes with it a good amount of privilege and protection, which is not available to non-minority educational institutions. In the matter of recruitment of staff, admission of students, disciplinary control over staff and students and in many other respects, these institutions are very much free of governmental control. Probably for this reason we find a surfeit of institutions claiming this character.
( 2 ) MINORITIES are of two typesreligious and linguistic. In the State of Andhra Pradesh, and for the purposes of laws made by the A; P. Legislature, all those whose mother-tongue is not Telugu are linguistic minorities. Similarly, all non-Hindus are minorities. Even among the Hindu fold, several denominations and sects have been recognized as religious minorities for the purpose of Art. 30. For example, Arya Samajists are recognized as a religious minority (AIR 1971 SC 1737) ; Brahmo Samajists are recognized as a religious minority; (see AIR 1962 Patna, 101 ). Similarly, even within christian religion, the Church of South India is recognized as a denomination among Christians within the meaning of Art. 30; (see AIR 1969, Kerala, 191 ). On this reasoning, many other denominations and sects within each religion can claim the minority status a truly confusing and uncertain situation. Instances have come to the notice of this Court where a person, a family or a group of persons (whether as a group or as a society) belonging to a religious or linguistic minority, has established an educational institution and promptly claimed minorityeducational institution-status for it. The institution so established imparts purely secular education. It has no programme or course promoting the language (if it claims to be a linguistic minority), or the religion or culture (if it claims to be a religious minority) of that minority, in all respects, it is just like any other educational institutionexcept that it is established and maintained by a person, family or group of persons belonging to a particular religious or linguistic minority. The particular minority; community as such has no say either in its establishment or its running. They claim that while they are entitled to recognition, affiliation and aid like any other educational institution, they shall not be subject to same amount of control cr regulation. A certain amount of autonomy is claimed by these institutions. How are we to deal with such claims? On what criteria and on what principles? Unfortunately, neither Art. 30 nor any other Article in the constitution and for that matter, any provision in any legislative enactment furnishes any guidelines in the matter. Hence, an exercise by judiciary has become necessary. Let us first notice the facts. W. P. No. 552 of 1986 :the petitioner in this writ petition is andhra Kesari Educational Society. According to the averments in the writ affidavit, it was registered in 1982 under the Societies Registration Act, having Regd. No. 141/82. It applied to the Government for permission to establish a College of Education. Finding that there was no response, the petitioner filed a writ petition in this Court and obtained a direction to the government to consider its application in accordance with law. The government considered the petitioner s application accordingly, and rejected it on the ground that the Colleges of Education already in existence in the State are sufficient to meet the need of trained teachers in the State and, therefore, there is no need to establish a new College of Education. This ground was held to be unsustainable in law and on facts by a Bench of this Court, which directed the Government to consider
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