Quota not applicable to minority colleges

Chennai: The Madras high court has held that the reservation of seats for BCs, SCs and STs for admission to private educational institutions cannot be made applicable to minority educational institutions referred to in Article 30 (1) of the Constitution.

Allowing a petition from Loyola College (autonomous), a division bench, comprising Chief Justice R.K. Agrawal and Justice M. Sathyanarayanan gave the ruling and set aside a G.O. dated May 23, 2012, insofar as Loyola College was concerned.

The G.O. prescribed guidelines relating to rule of reservation for admission of students to UG/PG courses in government/aided/unaided arts and science colleges for the academic year 2012-13.

Concurring with the submissions of Isaac Mohanlal, counsel for Loyola College, the bench said by virtue of Article 15 (5) of the Constitution read with section 2 (d) of the TN Act 12 of 2006, the reservation of seats for BCs, SC/STs for admission to private educational institutions cannot be made applicable to the minority educational institutions referred to in Article 30 (1) of the Constitution of India (right of minorities to establish and administer educational institutions).

“The impugned G.O. is in the form of guidelines for admission to students to UG/PG cou­rses in gove­rn­ment/aided/unaided arts and science colleges for the academic year 2012-13 and the said guidelines cannot override the mother of all laws, namely, Cons­titution of India, more particularly Article 15 (5) of the Constitution of India and the statute namely, the TN Act 12 of 2006,” the bench added.