The Predicament Of Linguistic Minority Schools

With the intent to enable minorities to protect and preserve their language, culture and religion and also to promote and provide education to minorities in general, Article 30 of the Constitution of India ("CoI") grants minorities the right to establish and administer educational institutions/schools of their choice. Minority status educational institutions enjoy several rights/liberties and a much higher level of administrative and operational freedom as compared to non-minority institutions. The obligations of a non-minority institution is further compounded by the provisions of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009 ("RTE Act"), which inter alia requires admission to students of weaker sections and economically deprived community constituting 25% of the total strength of students, an obligation which is not applicable to minority institutions¹. Post implementation of the RTE Act, the applications seeking minority status has seen