Calcutta High Court dismisses PIL on Christian minority status of several West Bengal schools

Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court has dismissed a PIL which questioned the Christian minority status of several schools in West Bengal, holding that those institutes do not need to take any certificate from the government to be recognised as so.

A division bench presided by Chief Justice T S Sivagnanam said that there are several judgements by the Supreme Court in this regard which clearly state that once a minority organisation, one is always a minority institution.

Expressing doubts about the bonafide of the petitioner in filing the plea, the court said that it is evident that he is unaware of the settled legal principle laid down by the Supreme Court in various decisions.

Citing one such decision of the apex court, the bench, also comprising Justice Chaitali Chatterjee (Das) noted that a school which is otherwise a minority school will continue to be so whether the government declared it as such or not.

It also noted that when the government declares a school as a minority institution, it has only recognised a factual position that the school was established and is being administered by a minority community.

The petition, filed in 2019, claimed that some particular schools in the state cannot be treated as Christian minority educational institutions since they had not obtained any certificate to that effect from the West Bengal Minority Commission.

The petitioner submitted that to be declared so, a school needs to apply before the appropriate authority of the West Bengal government to be first certified to be a minority educational institution.

It was stated by the petitioner that without such a certificate, nobody can claim to be a minority school.

The respondent schools' lawyer submitted that these were established in the 19th century and were enjoying Christian minority status.

He stated that only after 2010 the West Bengal Minority Commission came into being and that it provides that if an institution wants a certificate it needs to apply before the panel.

He further submitted that the petitioner's case is that they do not enjoy the minority status since they had not obtained the certificate.

The chief justice said that there are several decisions which clarified that to declare a particular institution as a religious minority or a linguistic minority, one cannot insist upon the concerned agency to go to the government every year to renew the status.

He said that the minority status of an institution cannot be taken away by a rule or a commission.

The bench said that the minority commission will provide for a particular methodology and that if one wants a certificate, one can apply before it.

The court passed the order on Thursday.