HC stays order on giving minority status to Jains

HC stays order on giving minority status to Jains
PRESS TRUST OF INDIA

JODHPUR, JAN 23: A division bench of the Rajasthan High Court has stayed a single judge bench order giving minority community status to Jains for running educational institutions.

Accepting an appeal filed by the state government challenging the single bench order of September last year, the division bench of the High Court, consisting of Justice B J Sethana and Justice H R Panwar, stayed the order here on Monday.

The single judge bench while disposing of a petition by Vijay Shanti education trust had ordered that Jains should be considered minority community and the dental medical college being set up by the trust should be given status of a minority community institution.

Opposing the single judge bench order, Additional Advocate General Rameshwar Lal Jangid pleaded before the division bench that any section of the society could be accorded minority status only through a notification of the Union Government under the National Minorities Commission Act and Jains had not been accorded this status.

He contended that the trust, seeking minority status for the dental college, wrongly stated in its application that Jains had already been declared minority community by a central notification.

The court after hearing arguments from both the sides accepted the appeal for hearing and stayed the single judge bench order.