Holding the Karnataka government responsible for violating the educational rights of the minorities, the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI) has asked the state to allow minority educational institutions to fill up vacant posts of the teaching staff independently.
Acting on a petition filed by the Karnataka Region Catholic Bishop’s Council the NCMEI said in a recent order, “The action of the state government in not allowing the minority educational institutions in the state to fill up the vacant posts of teachers is violative of educational rights of the minorities guaranteed in Article 30(1) of the Constitution.”
“Consequently, it is recommended to the state government to allow the minority educational institutions to fill up the vacant posts of the teaching staff in terms of the decision rendered by the Supreme Court in T M A Pai Foundation’s case,” the commission, which has the status of a civil court, said.
The NCMEI said, while interpreting the judgement rendered by the Supreme Court in T M A Pai Foundation case, it was held that the state could prescribe the minimum qualifications, experience and other criteria bearing on merit, for making appointments. It could also set the service conditions of employees without interfering with the overall administrative control by the management over the staff; a mechanism for redressal of the grievances of the employees; the conditions for the proper utilisation of the aid by the educational institutions.
It was also held that if any regulation interferes with the overall administration control by the management over the staff or abridges/dilutes in any other regulation, to that extent, will be inapplicable to minority institutions.
“It is now well settled that the right to appoint the teaching and non-teaching staff for a minority educational institution is perhaps the most important facet of the right to administer an educational institution,” the order said. “The imposition of any trammel thereon, except to the extent of prescribing the requisite qualifications and experience or otherwise fostering the interests of the institution itself, cannot but be considered as a violation of the right guaranteed by Article 30(1) of the Constitution,” it said.
Thus, the Management’s right of a minority educational institution to choose a qualified person as the teacher of the school should be well insulated by the protective cover of Article 30 (1) of the Constitution and “it cannot be chiselled out through any legislative act of executive fiat except for prescribing the qualifications and conditions of service for the post.”