New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions had the power to grant an academic organisation the "valid" and binding status of a minority institute.

A bench of Justice A.K. Goel and Justice R.F. Nariman set aside a ruling by Calcutta High Court, which had said the status the NCMEI had granted to a north Bengal college was not valid as it had not been approved by the "competent authority".

"Insofar as existing minority institutions are concerned, Section 11(f) (of the NCMEI Act) clearly confers jurisdiction on the NCMEI to issue a certificate regarding the status of the minority educational institution," the top court said on an appeal filed by the college society of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Cluny.

"The appeal is, accordingly, allowed and the judgment of the Calcutta High Court is set aside. The order... dated 23.10.2007 and the certificate... dated 25.10.2007 (issued by the NCMEI) are declared to be valid in law," the bench added.

The college in Kalimpong in the north Bengal hills had been set up in the 1990s to provide secular education.

On October 23 that year, the commission passed an order declaring the women's college as a minority educational institution. Two days later, the NCMEI issued a minority status certificate.

In September 2008, the registrar, University of North Bengal, filed an application for cancelling the certificate. The NCMEI dismissed the application in November 2009. The university moved the high court and a single-judge bench ruled that the NCMEI could not grant minority status to the institution and the certificate was invalid. A division bench upheld the ruling,.

Justice Nariman, who wrote the judgment, said Section 11(f) was a "very wide provision which empowers the NCMEI to decide 'all questions' relating to the status of an institution as a minority educational institution and to declare its status as such".

"The expression 'all questions' as well as the expression 'relating to', which are words of wide import, clothe the NCMEI with the power to decide any question that may arise, which may relate directly or indirectly, with respect to the status of an institution as a minority education institution.

"Looked at by itself, Section 11(f) would include the declaration of the status of an institution as a minority educational institution at all stages. Article 30 of the Constitution grants a fundamental right to all minorities, whether based on religion or language, to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.

"The power under Section 11(f), read by itself, would clothe the NCMEI with the power to decide any question that may arise with regard to the right to establish and/or administer educational institutions by a minority," he said.