Aligarh Muslim University can’t get minority tag: Centre to Supreme Court
Satya Prakash
New Delhi, January 9
An educational institution wasn’t barred from enjoying minority status merely because it’s regulated by a statute under Article 30 of the Constitution, the Supreme Court said on Tuesday.
Calls upa stand wrong
- The SC Bench is examining the correctness of a 2006 Allahabad HC judgment declaring that AMU (in pic) was not a minority institution
- The AMU and the then UPA government had challenged the verdict in the SC
- NDA govt in 2016 told the SC it would withdraw the appeal as ‘previous stand was wrong’
A seven-judge Constitution Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud, which commenced hearing on the contentious issue of minority status of the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), observed that there was no need for absolute administration by a minority group to claim such a status under Article 30 of the Constitution, which conferred right to “establish and administer” educational institutions on religious and linguistic minorities.
The Centre, for its part, submitted that given its “national character”, AMU was not and could not be a university of any particular religion or religious denomination as any university that had been declared an institution of national importance could not be a minority institution.
The Bench was examining the correctness of a 2006 judgment of the Allahabad High Court, declaring that AMU was not a minority institution.
In his written submissions, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said the university had always been an institution of national importance, even in the pre-Independence era. He submitted that “a large national institute like AMU ought to maintain its secular origins and serve the larger interest of the nation first”. The hearing will resume on Wednesday. If the Supreme Court finally declared AMU a minority institution, SCs, STs and OBCs will not get reservation in admission. The verdict would set a judicial precedent for a similar legal battle over the status for the Jamia Millia Islamia University, which was declared a minority institution during the UPA government in 2011. The AMU and the then UPA government had challenged the 2006 Allahabad High Court verdict in the SC.
However, the BJP-led NDA government in 2016 told the top court that it would withdraw the appeal filed by its predecessor government as “the previous stand was wrong”. It said a five-judge Constitution Bench in 1968 in the Aziz Basha case had held that AMU was a “central university” and not a minority institution.
