Protection of the rights of religious and ethnic minorities is fundamental to India’s secular values, with a legacy of embracing all religions under its fold. India has consistently upheld the principle of equality. Article 30 of the Indian Constitution is one of the key provisions safeguarding minority rights. It falls under Part III of the Indian Constitution, which delineates fundamental rights granted to all citizens of India, regardless of caste, religion, sex, or place of birth. Article 30 guarantees minorities the right “to establish and administer educational institutions.”
Article 30(1)
Article 30(1) grants all linguistic and religious minorities the ‘right to establish’ and the ‘right to administer’ educational institutions of their choice. This provision extends to two categories of minorities: religious and linguistic. The right conferred upon these minorities—to ‘establish’— implies the authority to bring into existence, while the right to administer an institution entails the freedom to effectively manage and oversee its operations. This management must be free from control and restrictions, allowing the founders of the institution to shape it according to the ideals and values of their community, thereby serving the interests and betterment of the community, as well as others, in imparting education. The founding mothers and fathers of the Constitution provided minority communities with the option to establish such educational institutions to serve dual purposes: safeguarding their religion, language, or culture, and providing general education to their children in their own language.
Sr Adv Mary Scaria SCJM
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