The High Court of Karnataka on Thursday reserved its verdict on a petition filed by the Kanachur Islamic Education Trust seeking a direction to the State government to allot students only from the Sunni Muslim community to the MBBS seats in Kanachur Medical College, Mangaluru.
Contending that it has been legally declared a religious minority educational institution under the law and is managed by Sunni Muslims, the petitioner claimed that it has the legal right to indicate the “choice of preference of the students” to be allotted through the common counselling.
Claiming that the institution was established for catering to members of the Sunni Muslim community, the Trust questioned the July 4, 2018 decision of the Department of Medical Education rejecting its plea on the same.
The Trust had, in May this year, written to the department to preferably allot students of Sunni Muslim community to 82 of 150 seats that fall under the institutional/management quota seats for first year MBBS course for 2018-19. It had said that it was open to admitting students of any religion or caste through the 38 government quota seats (25% of the total seats).
Apart from producing a religion certificate from the revenue authorities, the students should be made to secure a certificate from the Sunni Jam Iyyathul Ulama, Mangaluru, the Trust had requested.
According to the petition, St. John’s Medical College, Bengaluru, which is a Christian minority institution, is being allowed to admit its “preferred students”. The petitioner has also claimed that the Kerala government is permitting religious minority institutions to do the same.
However, the State government opposed the plea, claiming that the National Commission for Minority Educational Institution has issued a certificate to the Trust stating that it is a religious minority (Muslim institution), and hence it could not insist on allotment of students belonging to only Sunni sect.
A Division Bench comprising Justice A.S. Bopanna and Justice Mohammad Nawaz reserved its verdict.