Kerala High Court quashes scheme allotting 80% minority scholarships to muslims

The Kerala High Court on Friday quashed orders of the Kerala Government announcing scholarships to Muslim students and Latin Catholic/Converted Christians in the ratio 80:20.

Declaring that the orders could not be legally sustainable, Justice Shaji P Chaly, speaking for the Bench of himself and Chief Justice Manikumar directed the State to provide merit-cum-means scholarships to members of notified minority communities equally.

With this, the Court allowed a petition filed by lawyer Justine Pallivathukal. The petition alleged that the State Government was giving undue preference to the Muslim Community over the members of other minority communities in the state.

Among other issues discussed, the Court held that there is nothing wrong in the State Government providing facilities to weaker sections of the community, but when it comes to dealing with the notified minorities, "it has to treat them equally".

The judgment states that the government was not vested with any powers to treat them unequally. Describing the allotment as a ration as a 'sub-classifcation', the Court said,

"Therefore, deducing the facts, circumstances and the laws, we are of the considered opinion that the action of the State Government in sub-classifying the minorities by providing merit-cum-means scholarship at 80% to Muslim community and 20% to the Latin Catholic Christians and Converted Christians cannot be legally sustained"

Urging the state to provide merit-cum-means scholarship equally to all notified minorities, the petition was allowed.