July 30: The Bombay High Court yesterday refused interim relief to the management of Lala Lajpat Rai Institute which in a writ petition challenged the state government order refusing to entertain its claim to minority status.However, a division bench of Justice A C Agarwal and Justice S D Gundewar admitted the petition. Last week, the same division bench rejected the application of Rizvi Educational Society challenging the rejection of its claim by the Maharashtra government on the minority status of Rizvi Institute of Management Studies with respect to the Muslim religious minority. Last year, Rizvi Education Society (RES) had filed a petition claiming minority status and reservation of 50 per cent seats to the Master of Management Studies (MMS) course for its own community people, which was admitted by Justice A P Shah. However, since the admission process for the MMS course had already concluded, no interim relief was granted. But RES was given the liberty to approach the state for consideration of its claim this year.Consequently, neither Lala Lajpat Rai Institute of Management nor the Rizvi Institute of Management Studies will be able to reserve 50 per cent seats for the current academic year, explained the university counsel, Rui Rodrigues. Advocate E P Bharucha represented Lala Lajpat Rai and advocate Satish Shah represented Rizvi Educational Society. The additional advocate general, B P Apte appeared for the state in both cases. By a Government Resolution passed in 1994, the state government is empowered to grant minority status to educational institutions. This power was previously exercised by the Mumbai university.
