Bombay HC rejects Goa church body plea on UGC rules for minority institutes

The joint petition was filed by the Archdiocesan Board of Education which oversees all Church-run institutions and the Diocesan Society of Education, which administers schools and colleges run by the Goa archdiocese

The Bombay high court has rejected petitions filed by two church organisations that oversee educational institutions in Goa to strike down rules issued by the University Grants Commission (UGC) pertaining to appointments of faculty and staff in educational institutes run by religious minorities.

File photo of the Bombay high court. 

The joint petition was filed by the Archdiocesan Board of Education which oversees all Church-run institutions and the Diocesan Society of Education, which administers schools and colleges run by the Goa archdiocese

There are sufficient safeguards in the regulations by the UGC and the Goa University to ensure the right of minority communities to establish and administer their own educational institutions are not infringed upon, as guaranteed by Article 30 of the Constitution, the bench of justices M S Sonak and R N Laddha said on Friday.

The church bodies had challenged provisions of the regulations issued by the UGC in 2010 and further amended in 2018, and the Goa University statutes for recruitment in affiliated colleges.

The rules mandate that among the recruitment panel would be two nominees of the vice-chancellor of the Goa University. In the case of minority-run institutions, an exception was made to the extent that these two nominees would be from a list of five experts, preferably from the minority community, chosen by the vice-chancellor from among a list submitted by the governing body of the college. The final two experts would be chosen from among these five by the chairperson of the college.

“We think that (the regulation) does not make any inroads on the rights granted to the minority institutions to either establish or administer the educational institutions of their choice. There is a clear distinction made between the minority and non-minority institutions on the aspect of the nomination of experts,” it said.

“The provisions are regulatory, and the regulation ensures the excellence of the teaching staff that is proposed to be selected,” it said. “Special provisions have been made for minority institutions to ensure that their autonomy and rights to administer educational institutions are hardly affected.”

The court, however, struck down a clause in the regulations mandating a representative of the Directorate of Higher Education in the selection panel to recruit academic staff.