Way forward

♤ The minority status should not be revoked due to mere technical lacunae. After all Minorities invest their resources, properties and time and also educate 50% non-minorities in their institutions.

♤ The ambiguities and gaps in the current administrative setup must be removed so that minority status’ is not hijacked for private interests at the expense of minority welfare and equitable education

♤ More autonomy must be given to such universities in curriculum design and operation.

♤ The court has consistently maintained that the receipt of governmental aid does not mean the surrender of minority character. Hence Government may provide funding to MEIs in tune with other universities.

♤ The Supreme Court’s decision to exempt all minority schools from the RTE need to be reviewed.

♤ The separate criteria for linguistic minorities must be evolved as criteria formulated by the NCMEI for religious minorities cannot be applied indiscriminately on linguistic minorities. For e.g. the medium of instruction in the linguistic minority institution must be in its language. At present, only Maharashtra has such a requirement.