National Commission for Minorities Educational Institutions (NCMEI) under the Ministry of Human Resource Development gives the minority status to the educational institutions on the basis of six religious communities notified by the Ministry of HRD under the NCMEI Act, 2004, viz., Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Zoroastrians (Parsis) and Jains only.

This information was given by the Minister of State (HRD), Satya Pal Singh today in a written reply to a Rajya Sabha question.

Linguistic Minorities do not come under the ambit of the NCMEI Act, 2004.

Hence question of empowering any Agency to issue minority certificate on linguistic basis does not arise.