This petition, field on behalf of two aided schools, the C. N. I. Training School for Men and Women, Kottayam, and the B. I. Training School for Women, Pallom, Kottayam, is for the issue of an appropriate writ or direction restraining the respondent from enforcing R.6,7 and 8 of Chapter XXV of the Kerala Education Rules as against these schools. Both the schools are owned by the Diocese of Madhya Kerala, and the petitioner represents the same. The Madhya Kerala Diocese is part of the Church of South India. The Church represents a denomination among Christians, and on the basis of the averment in the affidavit in support of the petition, I think that the denomination is a 'minority' within the meaning of Art.30.

2. In A. M. Patron v. E. G. Kesavan AIR. 1965 Kerala 75, at 76 this court said:

"The word 'minority' is not defined in the Constitution; and in the absence of any special definition we must hold that any community, religious or linguistic, which is numerically less than fifty per cent, of the population of the State is entitled to the fundamental right guaranteed by the Article.

The Christians, at the 1961 census amounted only to 21.22 per cent of the population of