New Delhi, Dec. 30: The Centre is considering an ordinance to empower the minority commission to answer a politically sensitive question: what is a minority educational institution?

The issue is crucial in the light of the government’s move to enforce reservations in all private colleges barring minority institutions.

The Cabinet has cleared amendments to the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act, giving the commission more powers, including one to define a minority institution. But the amendment bill couldn’t be passed in the winter session of Parliament.

The Union human resource development ministry doesn’t want to wait till February, when the budget session begins, for the bill to become law. It wants an ordinance brought in right away.

The Constitution does not lay down criteria for the definition of a minority institution. The need for a clear definition was repeatedly stressed by all political parties during the recent debate on the constitutional amendment bill in Parliament.

That bill makes it mandatory for institutions of higher education ? even if they are private and run without government aid ? to reserve seats for scheduled caste and scheduled tribe students.

The bill, however, exempts minority institutions, a fact that has triggered a debate over the definition of such institutions. The BJP opposed the bill on this ground and even the Left parties, who supported it, underlined the need for a clear definition.

MPs from Kerala ? where nine out of 10 higher-education institutions are minority institutions ? cut across party lines to demand definite guidelines on what linguistic and religious criteria should entitle an institution to minority status.

Confusion now prevails on the issue. The situation is particularly chaotic in Kerala where almost any institution can claim minority status.

If it brings in the ordinance, the Centre is likely to find itself under fire from the BJP.

The main Opposition party’s argument is that the amendments to the minority education act should be left to Parliament to decide; promulgating an ordinance amounts to bypassing the Houses. The BJP has been resisting HRD minister Arjun Singh’s efforts to lend more teeth to the minority commission.