SC agrees to examine if administration of educational institution by minority community will give it special status

The Supreme Court has agreed to examine whether an educational institution administered by members of a minority community would result in it being conferred the status of a minority institution.

A bench of justices B R Gavai and B V Nagarathna issued notices to the Uttar Pradesh government, National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions, National Medical Commission and others while seeking their replies.

As per the report of PTI, the top court was hearing an appeal filed by Mahayana Theravada Vajrayana Buddhist Religious and Charitable Trust challenging the Allahabad High Court order which observed that mere administration of an educational institution by a minority would not confer on it status of a minority institution.

The high court was dealing with the petition against the Uttar Pradesh government order, where the state government refused to treat the institution as a minority institution, it further stated.

"Thus for an institution to qualify as minority institution within the meaning of Uttar Pradesh Private Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Fixation of Free) Act, 2006, it should be an institution not only being administered by a minority but it also ought to have been established by the minority and it should also be notified by the State as such," the high court had said.

The petitioner trust had established a medical college in 2001 and the members of the trust later converted to Buddhism in 2015 and kept on running the administration of the institution.