KERALA;

Challenge in courts to new Red bill?
THE Kerala • Schools Bill which was declared unconstitutional in part by the Supreme Court of India has been passed again in a watereddown form by the Kerala State Parliament. In its new form, the BM is likely to be challenged in the courts by Catholic school managers.
The new Bill allows the State Government-which is Communist --to take over those schools which it considers to be poorly managed. What are vaguely described as " minority schools" are exempt from seizure by the State.
The three days of debate in the Kerala Parliament left uncertain what was the precise meaning of " minority schools". They are defined in the Hill as " schools established by minorities who have a right to do so " under the Indian constitution. At first sight, this would seem to include Catholic schools among those exempted from the operations of the Bill.
But the Communist Minister of Education, Mr. Joseph Mundasserry, said during the debate that the minority schools were those run by Jews, Anglo-Indians, and 'Aber sectional groups. The definition did not include Catholic schools, he declared.
Schools receiving "deserving aid " are also exempt from some clauses of the Bill, but this category does not include schools which are " over-supplied" with After the Bill had been passed, Mr Mundasscry, while praising the services provided by the private schools, said that they could not have unrestricted freedom when they were operating with Government money.
The next move for the Catholic community of Kerala would seem to be to test the interpretation of the ambiguous term " minority schools" in the courts. While Catholics clearly form a minority group within the framework of India as a whole, it may be objected that they do not need the special protection provided by the Constitution in the State of Kerala itself, where they form an appreciable section of the population.