Minority Scholarship : Supreme Court Issues Notice On Plea Of Jamaat-E-Islami's Youth Wing Against HC Order Quashing 80:20 Distribution To Muslims & Christians

The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice on the special leave petition filed by Solidarity Youth Movement, the youth wing of Islamic organization Jamaat-E-Islami Hind, challenging the Kerala High Court's order which quashed the government scheme to provide minority scholarship to Muslims and Christians in 80:20 ratio.

A bench comprising Justice L Nageswara Rao and BR Gavai tagged the petition along with the special leave petition filed by the State of Kerala against the High Court verdict.  On October 29, the bench had issued notice on the State's petition and its application seeking stay of the High Court judgment.

Senior Advocate Salman Khurshid, Advocates Lubna Naaz, Jaimon Andrews, Ameen Hassan, Piyo Harold Jaimon, Naresh Kumar and PA Noor Muhamed appeared for Solidarity Youth Movement.

The judgment under challenge was delivered by a division bench of the High Court in May 2021. On May 28, 2021, a division bench of the Kerala High Court had set aside the 80:20 minority scholarship scheme, observing that the state has to treat both the minority communities equally. The High Court had further directed that the minority scholarship must be distributed amongst the notified minorities in accordance with their population proportion as per the latest census.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice S Manikumar and Justice Shaji P Chaly gave the verdict in a PIL filed by a Christian person challenging the scheme(Justine Pallivathukkal vs State of Kerala).

Terming the High Court directions to be "irrational" and "erroneous", the State Government in its petition stated that the minority scholarship scheme was introduced on the basis of the reports of Justice Rajender Sachar Committee and Paloli Mohammad Kutty Committee (which was constituted by the State Government subsequent to Sachar Committee report) regarding the educational backwardness in the Muslim community.

The State Government argues that the High Court committed a "grave error" by directing to extend the minority scholarship scheme to all notified minorities in the proportion of population, without ascertaining any study regarding backwardness.

Case Title : Solidarity Youth Movement versus Justine Pallivathukkal and others |SLP (c) No.6299/2022

Click here to read/download the order