Scholarship for minorities an affirmative action: Guj HC

The Gujarat High Court today upheld by a majority verdict the constitutional validity of the Centre's pre-matric minority scholarship scheme, saying that it was "affirmative action" and not a discriminatory scheme. It also said that such a scheme would be permissible looking at the backwardness of minority community. Narendra Modi government had refused to implement the scheme, saying it was discriminatory and unconstitutional. "The fact is that minority community has lagged behind the national average in several parameters of advancement. Their performance is far behind the national average in various fields. "If that be the situation, would it be impermissible for the Union of India to frame a scheme taking a small step providing scholarship to a limited number of students," it further said. Of the five judges in the bench, three ruled in favour of the scheme, saying it does not violate the Constitution, while two others gave a dissenting opinion. The judgement was pronounced by the bench after hearing a batch of PILs demanding that the state government should implement the scheme in Gujarat. The Modi government has not implemented the scheme, launched in the country in 2008, saying that it is "discriminatory" in nature. Justices V M Sahai, D H Vaghela and Akil Kureshi said that it is an "affirmative action" and "not discriminatory" in nature. "Viewed from any angle, the scheme cannot be held to be unconstitutional," the majority opinion said. "The Constitution of India was framed with an aim of bringing about a peaceful social change. For achieving such goals, the policy framers must be allowed a certain degree of latitude in experimentation in framing policies and allocation of funds," the judgement of the three judges said. "The courts neither have a mandate, nor the wherewithal, nor the expertise to evaluate such policies microscopically. It is the framers of the policy who have public mandate and who once in every five years, unlike the judges, seek a fresh mandate from the people of this country, who may and must be allowed free hand in policy framing," it further said. (More)