Delay in Grant of Linguistic Minority Status to Some Schools Upsets Karnataka High Court

The delay in granting linguistic minority status to some schools run by linguistic minorities has upset the Karnataka High Court. Seats had been allotted to students in these schools under the Right to Education (RTE) Act by the Education Department. The government was intentionally delaying granting them the status, the schools alleged in the High Court.

Earlier, the HC called it “not a happy state of affairs” and said that the Union government, state government, and National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions were playing a blame game.

The Centre has been directed to issue a notification in three months, after which the NCMEI will grant minority status to the schools.

The Union government had filed a memo before the HC in March 2018.

In August 2018, the court, based on this memo, directed the state government to identify the linguistic minorities in Karnataka.

A notification was issued on November 5, 2018 by the state government, enlisting languages including Urdu, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Tulu, Lamani, Hindi, Marathi, and Gujarati for declaration of linguistic minority status of educational institutions.

The counsel for the NCMEI, which ultimately grants certificate to educational institutions, argued in the High Court that there was difficulty for the Commission in acting upon the notification of the state government.