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The Supreme Court's judgment on minority educational institutions is being interpreted in different ways in Kerala, where the gap between minority and majority communities is thin.
While politicians and bureaucrats see several grey areas in the October 31 verdict for the government to push its quota, some legal experts and leaders of minority communities say the judgment is unambiguous on the rights regarding admissions.
"No one who has read the last section in the judgment dealing with several pertinent questions can claim any scope for governmental intervention in admissions. The court had examined 11 questions. Though all the questions have not been answered, those pertaining to admissions have been dealt with clearly. The answers leave no room for any doubt on the rights granted to unaided minority institutions," said T P Kelu Nambiar, a senior advocate with the Kerala high court.
"If Chief Minister A K Antony and Law Minister K M Mani, whom I taught law, had read this section, they would never have tried to impose any quota on the unaided. Their present move is against the judgment," he observed.
A final decision on the issue is expected to be taken at a Cabinet meeting on Wednesday. The liaison committee of the ruling United Democratic Front on November 22 had asked the government to set apart 50 per cent seats in these colleges towards merit quota.
However, two minority-run unaided medical colleges have decided to ignore the UDF recommendation. They are going ahead with entrance tests on November 27 and 29 for admitting students to all the seats as per their own norms and fee structure.
A third one, however, is negotiating with the government for a 25 per cent reduction in merit quota, for which the fee is very nominal. The three colleges have 300 seats. The unaided minority engineering colleges, on the other hand, have set up a committee to frame guidelines and fee structure for admissions in accordance with the Supreme Court judgment.
These institutions have termed the government's move to impose merit quota a violation of the apex court order. "The court has insisted only on transparency and merit in admissions. We will ensure both," said Joy P Jacob, a spokesman of the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church Medical College, which is conducting the entrance test on November 29.
The Left parties are not satisfied with the UDF's decision to leave 50 per cent seats to the management of colleges. The Communist Party of India-Marxist and the Communist Party of India are apprehensive that this would lead to the commercialisation of education.
The leaders of majority communities are demanding a caste-based census in the state to determine which communities are in a minority. Nair Service Society, a socio-cultural organisation of the Hindu community, is sure that if a census is carried out then two minority communities in Kerala would emerge as majority communities.
NSS general secretary P K Narayana Panickar has urged the government to undertake an immediate caste-based census in the light of the apex court observation that community and linguistic minorities should be determined by individual states.
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