THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government has approached the Supreme Court seeking a stay on the High Court order issued in May quashing the 80:20 ratio in providing minority scholarship to Muslims and Latin/converted Christians.
The High Court had ruled that the government needed to distribute minority scholarship in proportion to the population of different minority communities. In July, the government issued a fresh order, adhering to the directives of the High Court for scholarships issued to eligible students this year.
In the appeal filed in the SC, the state contended that the decision to provide more scholarships to Muslims as Sachar committee and Paloli committee appointed to study the backwardness of Muslim community had documented the educational backwardness of the community and recommended to issue scholarship to address that.
In 2011, Latin Catholic and converted Christians were also added to the list and 20% of the scholarships was reserved for them considering their backwardness. In the appeal, the state said expanding the realm of scholarship to all minorities will only result in several ineligible candidates receiving the scholarships. As per the new formula devised in accordance with the HC order, students belonging to all Christian denominations — including economically and educationally forward — are eligible.
Govt: Panel studying Xtian communities’ backwardness
The state told SC that a commission led by Justice J B Koshy has been appointed to study the backwardness of Christian community. Based on the recommendations of the Koshy commission, eligible sections from Christian community will be selected for the scholarship, the affidavit filed by C K Sasi, standing counsel of Kerala in the SC, said.
The HC order had triggered a political controversy in the state with UDF constituent Muslim League and LDF constituent INL demanding the government to file an appeal while Kerala Congress factions in both fronts welcomed the HC order and implementation of the same. The Muslim League had put the blame on previous LDF government which had diluted the criterion in 2011 to include eligible candidates from Latin Catholic and converted Christian communities, by devising the 80:20 ratio.
The government, which delayed the filing of appeal by five months, devised a formula in July to implement the HC order without affecting the number of scholarships granted to Muslim community. The government, while revising the formula to include all Christian denominations along with Muslim, Latin Catholic and converted Christian communities under the purview of the scheme, approved an additional allocation of Rs 6.2 crore to the scheme so that the existing number of Muslim scholarship could be continued.
The scheme requires Rs 23.51 crore per annum and that is provided as budget allocation for minority affairs department. The additional sum approved was for retaining the number of scholarships entitled for Muslim students as the same even while adding more eligible communities.
High Court order
The Kerala High Court had ruled that the government needed to distribute minority scholarship in proportion to the population of different minority communities
In July, the government issued a fresh order, adhering to the directives of the High Court for scholarship issued to eligible students this year.