State obligated to recognise a minority institution: Top court

The constitutional right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice cannot be made subservient to any legislative act, a seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court observed on Tuesday, adding that the State is obligated under the Constitution to recognise a minority institution.

- Utkarsh Anand

On the fourth day of the hearing related to the minority status of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), the bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud emphasised that Article 30 puts the State under an obligation to recognise minority educational institutions and not discriminate them in matters of granting aid.

"Article 30 is not an enabling provision so far as the State is concerned. It is an obligation on the State. It cannot be that 'I as a state have the liberty to grant or deny you the status...in Article 30, there is no choice," the bench, which also comprised justices Sanjiv Khanna, Surya Kant, JB Pardiwala, Dipankar Datta, Manoj Misra and Satish Chandra Sharma, remarked.

The court's observations came in response to the submissions by attorney general (AG) R Venkataramani, who described Article 30 as an "enabling provision" and added that the phraseology used in Article 30 -- "educational institutions of their choice" -- cannot be construed by itself conferring an authority to establish any class of institutions regardless of any legal competence to do so.