Kerala Minority Scholarship: Appeal filed against Kerala HC order in SC

New Delhi: A Kerala-based non-profit trust, Minority Indians Planning and Vigilance Commission Trust (MIPVCT) has moved the Supreme Court against Kerala High Court's decree quashing the Kerala Government's order granting minority scholarships for Muslims and Christian students.

The Special Leave Petition (SLP) submitted by MIPVCT said that the government orders were founded on the recommendations by Sachar Committee. The petition pleaded that the committee was formed to analyse the social, economic and educational status of Muslims in India and address the community's socio-economic backwardness, but not of minority communities in the nation as a whole, Live Law reported. Subsequently, government of Kerala formed its own committee under former minister and veteran CPIM leader Paloli Mohammed Kutty to formulate schemes as implementation of the recommendations.

It further said that the HC erroneously quashed the orders, and the court had erred in its observation that those were discriminatory among minority communities. The HC has failed to see the distinction between the backward community and the minority community. The SLP stated that backward communities were mentioned under Articles 15 and 16 of the Indian Constitution and how the State is entitled to make special provisions for their upliftment, implying that the law permits positive discrimination in this case. Articles 29 and 30 mentions minority communities, and their rights were restricted to cultural and educational domains, it said. SLP thus pleaded that something envisaged for a backward community, which is a minority too, cannot be extended to other communities without examining their backwardness.

MIPVCT, represented by Advocate Haris Beeran pointed out that the HC overlooked the fundamental principles of natural justice and the legal implications while quashing the three orders. The perspective of the High Court was of treating Muslims as minorities whereas the special measures were for the backward community, who were also minorities. The petitioners also pleaded that treating these as minority welfare measures and including other minorities in the schemes devised for Muslims was flawed. The allocation of benefits between Muslims and backward Christian communities in a ratio of 80:20 was thus erroneous and deserved to be quashed.

As an action of complying with the HC order, Kerala government recently issued orders to the effect that the welfare benefits for minorities would be distributed pro-rata with the population.

The petition prayed that the Supreme Court should pass an order based on the facts and circumstances of the case. It pleaded to grant special leave to appeal before the court.

Meanwhile, the Kerala Council of Churches has filed an intervention petition in the Supreme Court, seeking no petition regarding this case to be adjudicated without hearing them. Although the state government has also announced it will file an appeal in Supreme Court, it hasn't yet made their move regarding the same.

In a May 18th 2021 order, the Kerala HC had quashed the state governments three orders announcing scholarships to Muslim and Latin Catholic/Converted Christian 'students in the ratio 80:20. The government orders were aimed at affirmative actions to achieve economic and social upliftment of the students from the relative communities, granting scholarships and hostel stipends. It also aimed to sanction a scholarship scheme for minority students pursuing CA, ICWA and CS courses on a merit cum means basis.

The High Court had observed that the three government orders discriminate against the rights of other minority communities and welfare schemes for minorities were to be distributed among all minorities proportionate to population.