The Kerala High Court recently quashed a government order allotting 80 percent merit-cum-means scholarships to Muslims of the state, directing the government to “provide merit-cum-means scholarship to members of the notified minority communities within the state equally.” The Muslim community of the state has expressed unease at the order saying that the scholarships were provided to community based on the recommendations of the historic Sachar Committee report. As per the 2006 Sachar Committee report, “Muslims are far behind Christians in college enrollment (and even behind Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes).” The report had said the Muslims in Kerala were in ‘toto’ a backward community. In response 13 Muslim organizations of the state have written to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan urging restoration of 100% scholarships to Muslims and requested the government to release a transparent data on the provisions and benefits provided to different communities.
Shalini S | TwoCircles.net
KERALA – After the Kerala High Court on May 28 quashed state “Government Orders, sub-classifying the minorities by providing merit-cum-means scholarship at 80 per cent to Muslim community and 20 per cent to Latin Catholic Christians and Converted Christians,” and saying “it cannot be legally sustained,” Muslims from the southern Indian state have expressed unease at the order.
In its order quashing the previous government order, the Division bench, comprising Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly directed the government to pass requisite and appropriate orders, providing merit-cum-means scholarship to members of the notified minority communities within the state equally. “This should be done in accordance with the latest population census available with the State Minority Commission,” the Court said.
The Kerala High Court passed these directions on a Public Interest Litigation filed by Justine Pallivathukkal, challenging a government order of May 8, 2015 that “reservation among the Muslims and other minority communities will be in the ratio of 80:20 ie– 80 per cent to Muslim Community and 20 per cent to Latin Christians and Converted Christians.”
The petition had said that the “fixation of such a ratio was arbitrary, unjust and illegal and accordingly violative of Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution.”
In its order on the petition, the Court noted that the Christian Minority community had made representations to the government and State Minority Commission on the discrimination meted out to Latin Catholic Christians and Converted Christians on award of merit-cum-means scholarship, but no action was initiated.
The decision by the High Court comes after the unexpected taking over of the state’s Minority Affairs portfolio by Kerala Chief Minister (CM) Pinarayi Vijayan, which reportedly has displeased the Muslim minority community of the state. Pertinently, the Directorate of Minority Welfare was formed under General Administration Department in 2008, and ever since the Minority Affairs was handled by Muslim ministers from the cabinet until now.
The decision by the Kerala High Court has left the Muslim community worried even more.
Unease at the order
In a statement, AP Aboobacker Musliyar, Grand Mufti of India and General Secretary of All India Sunni Jamiyyathul Ulama said, “Kerala government should address the social reality. It should explain under what conditions the scholarships were provided to Muslims and give proper data. It should appeal against the HC verdict.”
Likewise, 13 Muslim organisations from Kerala including Samastha Kerala Jamiat-ul-Ulema, Kerala Muslim Jamaath, Ameer- Jamaat-e-Islami Kerala, Wisdom Islamic Organisation, Muslim Education Society (MES) and Muslim Service Society (MSS) wrote a joint letter to the CM to restore 100% scholarships to Muslims and requested the government to release a transparent data on the provisions and benefits provided to different communities.
Caught between a cleft, Pinarayi Vijayan after an all-party meeting on June 5 said that legal scrutiny will be conducted before arriving at any conclusion.
CM strengthening rapport with Minority communities
The retaining of the Minority Affairs portfolio is viewed as the CM’s move to strengthen his rapport with the minority communities and is considered to be taken after concerns raised by Christian forums.
The Christian forums in Kerala have claimed that the state’s Minority Welfare Department has concerned itself with the welfare of the Muslim community alone and that there has been polarity in the distribution of minority welfare funds. However, the CM stated that the decision was not taken in favour of any minority community and was taken after consensus.
“Sangh parivar (umbrella term for Hindu nationalist organisation) has been trying to make inroads into the Christian community and cause communal friction in the state. Orthodox Syrian churches are on the same ground with the BJP that “love jihad” is real for a very long time. It is nothing but Hindutva hate propaganda. The church delegates also met with the Prime Minister to apprise them about the so-called “love jihad” and minority scholarship before the assembly elections. CM’s move can be seen as a political message to the BJP,” said Hiba, Assistant Professor in English from Calicut, Kerala, and an advocate of anti-caste politics.
Indian Union Muslim League’s National General Secretary P K Kunhalikutty castigated the move during a press conference. “Taking back the portfolio from Abdurahman is a huge insult. There is news that the community handling this department is not right. It has been endorsed.”
Sachar Committee and Paloli Commission
After the decision by the Kerala High Court quashing of 80:20 ratio in the distribution of minority scholarship, the move has created unrest among the Muslim community of the state.
Aysha Renna, student activist and prominent figure of anti-CAA protest from Kerala told TwoCircles.net, “Scholarship to Muslims is provided under the suggestions of Sachar Committee report after studying the socio-economic status of Muslims. The Sachar Committee report identified that Muslims were below SC and STs in backwardness. Paloli Commission was formed in Kerala to implement the suggestions provided in the Sachar Committee report. The scholarships were provided for the welfare of the Muslims in the beginning but it was later split into 80:20 ratio.”
Sachar Committee was established by the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2005 to study the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim Community in India. The report was the first of its kind to make a systematic analysis of India’s largest minority (Muslim) community since independence.
The report stated that, “the innocuous purpose was to know if Muslims were under-represented in some departments or any other sphere and reasons thereof so that the Government could take corrective steps. Such an approach is not divisive but is positive, an essential requirement for impartial and caring administration in its commitment for instilling confidence in the fairness of the government’s functioning.”
In 2008, an eleven-member committee was formed by the Kerala Government under the leadership of Paloli Mohammed Kutty, the then Minister for Local Administration, to submit proposals necessary for the implementation of suggestions made in the Sachar Committee report. The commission has emphasized constituting Minority Welfare Cell in the State Secretariat before the formation of the Department as part of immediate steps to be taken to redress the Muslim backwardness, to institute Welfare Fund and pension to Madrasa teachers and scholarship to Muslim girls, etc.
As mentioned in the court’s judgement allowing the petition of advocate Justine Pallivathukal dated May 28, “5000 scholarships have been set apart for degree and postgraduate professional courses for Muslim women per year and 14 posts of clerks have been created in 14 districts. An amount of Rs. 10 Crores was set apart for the implementation of the above scholarships (as recommended by Paloli Commission).”
This provision was extended to the Latin Catholics and other converted Christians by the then VS Achuthanandan led LDF government in Kerala.
A government order (GO) was passed in 2011 stating that 20% of benefits given to the Muslim students in scholarships and hostel stipends shall be distributed to the Latin Catholics and other converted Christians also.
In 2015, the Pinarayi Vijayan led LDF government passed another GO stating that the reservation in scholarship will be in 80:20 ratio for the Muslims and other minority communities (Latin Catholics and other converted Christians) pursuing courses such as Chartered Accountancy (CA), Cost & Works Accountancy (ICWA) and Company Secretaryship based on merit and income basis.
“The scholarships were provided for the welfare of the Muslim community under Sachar Committee report. It was later diluted and labelled as ‘minorities welfare.’ Any move in favour of Muslims is made to look corrupt,” a Muslim youth from Kerala told TwoCircles.net.
“Christians are religious minorities too and the state must create a separate committee to address their grievances and study their socio-economic conditions. They cannot split the scholarship,” Aysha Renna added.
Petetion alleging minority scholarship scheme as discriminatory to state’s Christians
A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed by advocate Justine Pallivathukal, who is a member of the Roman Catholic community, against the 80:20 ratio of minority scholarships in favour of the Muslim community in Kerala. “The fixation of ratio in Exhibit P4 (GO passed in 2015) is arbitrary, unjust and illegal and accordingly violative of Articles 14 and 15 of the Constitution of India,” Pallivathukal had argued in his petition.
The petitioner had said that the ratio was formulated without any study and that the state is supporting a particular section under the cover of minority rights.
In defence, the state government had filed a counter-affidavit citing Justice Sachar Committee report and Kerala Padana report for its affirmative action in granting separate scholarship to the Muslim community. Yet, the Kerala High court declared the 80:20 ratio as discriminatory in the spirit of the National Commission for Minorities Act, 1992, and Kerala State Commission for Minorities Act, 2014. It called the ratio unconstitutional.
“(We) hereby direct the Kerala State Government to pass requisite and appropriate Government orders providing merit-cum-means scholarship to the members of the notified minority communities within the State equally and in accordance with the latest population census available with the State Minority Commission,” the judgement said.