The Supreme Court has ruled that government can regulate recruitment of staff in aided minority educational institutions and such restrictions cannot be termed as "unconstitutional" or disturbing the minority character of the organisation. Article 30 of the Constitution provides special rights to minority communities to set up and administer their own educational institutions without governmental interference.

"In our considered view, we do not see this to be the interference in the selection process. It would be perfectly all right for a minority institution to select the candidates without any interference from the government.

"However, the requirement of this prior approval is necessitated because it is for the government to see as to whether there was actually posts available in the said institution as per the strength of students and secondly; whether the candidates, who were sought to be appointed, were having the requisite qualifications," a bench of justices V S Sirpurkar and Deepak Verma observed.

The apex court passed the ruling while upholding the Constitutional validity of a circular issued by the Gujarat government that mandated the grant-in-aid minority educational institutions to obtain prior approval of the government for appointment of teaching or non-teaching staff.

Kolawana Gram Vikas Kendra had challenged the validity of the impugned circular after the Gujarat government refused to approve the recruitment of certain staff made by the institution in 2002.

The government refused to grant approval to the recruitment as it was done without prior intimation as stipulated by a 1998 circular. Aggrieved, the Kendra moved the Gujarat High Court and a single judge bench dismissed the plea. The organization filed an appeal before a division bench, which upheld the verdict following which it moved the apex court.

... contd.