- (1.) The question that has been raised in this writ petition is the interpretation of this Court's decision in Islamic Academy of Education. According to the petitioner, para 17 of the said judgment reserves the rights of the institution like the petitioner, to hold their own admission procedure for admission of all students. Para 17 reads as under: "17. At this juncture it is brought to our notice that several institutions, have since long, had their own admission procedure and that even though they have been admitting only students of their own community no finger has ever been raised against them and no complaints have been made regarding fairness or transparency of the admission procedure adopted by them. These institutions submit that they have special features and that they stand on a different footing from other minority non-aided professional institutions. It is submitted that their cases are not based only on the right flowing from Article 30(1) but in addition they have some special features which require that they be permitted to admit in the manner they have been doing for all these years. A reference is made to few such institutions i.e. Christian Medical College, Vellore, St. John's Hospital, Islamic Academy of Education etc. The claim of these institutions was disputed. However, we do not think it necessary to go into those questions. We leave it open to the institutions which have been established and who have had their own admission procedure for, at least, the last 25 years to apply to the Committee set out hereinafter."
(2.) The State has submitted that para 17 should be read subject to para 19 of the judgment which provides for setting up of the permanent committee (i) to ensure the conduct of entrance tests by the association of colleges fairly and transparently, (ii) to oversee the test conducted by the association and (iii) to empower an institution which has been established and has been permitted to adopt its own admission procedure for the last "at least 25 years", to adopt its own admission procedure. If the Committee was satisfied that the needs of the institutions were genuine, the Committee was empowered to admit students of their own community in excess of the quota allowed to them by the State Government. Before granting such exemption or varying percentage of quota fixed by the State, the State Government was required to be heard.
(3.) There appears to be an obvious conflict between para 17 and para 19. For the time being, we prefer to adopt the reasoning in para 17 which allows a minority professional institution which has been carrying on the same procedure for the last more than 25 years to adopt its own procedure for admission in respect of its institution.;