On Friday, the High Court of Kerala held that action of the State Govt in sub classifying the minorities by providing merit-cum-means scholarship at 80% to the Muslim community & 20% to the Latin Catholic Christians & converted Christians cannot be legally sustained.

The division bench comprising Chief Justice S Manikumar & Justice Shaji P Chaly ruled that the benefits should be in proportion to the population of the various minorities.

The HC also asked to take the current census into account. The court's ruling came on a plea filed by Advocate Justin Pallivathukkal.

In 2015, the Govt issued an order for providing merit-cum-means scholarship at 80% to the Muslim community & 20% to the Latin Catholic Christians & Converted Christians.

The High Court order was issued on a petition filed by Justin Pallivathukkal, a native of Palakkad district against the 2015 order.

According to the plea, "separating minorities into Muslims & Christians is against secularism. The Govt benefits should be made available to all minorities in proportion to their population."

Earlier, the State Govt appointed a committee to study the educational & economic backwardness of the Christian backward classes. The committee lead by Justice JB Koshy. The Govt had submitted the committee's report to the Court. The Court also considered this while hearing the petition.