Minorities minister: No show cause notices yet

Minorities minister Arif Aseem Khan told DNA that show cause notices have not yet been issued to the three to four prominent minority institutions which were accused of violating the rules of filling up their minority quota. He said that he has instructed the department to look into the complaints given to him by a delegation of PTA members along with few RTI activists who had approached him on Tuesday. The schools maintained that there is no such rule that 50% of the seats should be for minority students.

The delegation had met with the minister and submitted complaints about these institutions alleging that they were not giving preferences to minority students, did not have their principal appointment approved by the education department and that they were allegedly collecting capitation. “I asked my officials to look into the veracity of these complaints and if found guilty only then will launch an inquiry against them. The show cause notices will be issued if we conduct an inquiry,” said minister Khan.

However, Father Francis Swamy, principal of Holy Family school, which is under the same mother society ‘Society of Jesus, Bombay province’, as St Mary’s, St Xaviers School said that according to the GR issued on August 4, 2008, only higher and professional education institutions are supposed to have a 50% minority quota in case of aided institutions and 51% for unaided institutions. Also, this requirement is not mandatory for schools, since school education does not come under the purview of higher education.