SC to look into minority status restoration after AMU’S appeal

A SEVEN-JUDGE BENCH WOULD NOW DEFINE THE PARAMETERS FOR GRANT OF MINORITY STATUS TO EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has decided to take a relook at its 51-year-old verdict that held Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) was a “central university” and not a “minority institution.”

A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi on Tuesday said a seven-judge bench would define the parameters for grant of minority status to educational institutions. The verdict that will come under reconsideration is the 1968 judgement in the Aziz Basha case that stripped AMU of its minority tag.

The CJI’S bench made the reference when AMU’S appeal against a 2006 Allahabad high court verdict came up for hearing before it. The HC had struck down provisions of an amendment made in 1981 to the law governing AMU, restoring the university’s minority status despite the Basha judgement.

In the Basha case, the SC had held that since AMU was enacted through a parliamentary legislation, it could not be deemed to have been established by an individual or a community. Therefore, the court ruled, AMU cannot be accorded minority status as provided under Articles 29 and 30 of the Indian Constitution.

However, 20 years later, Parliament amended the AMU Act, 1920 to remove the technicalities that prevented the university from being declared a minority institution. Subsequently, a notification was issued in February 2005 permitting AMU, as a minority institution, to reserve 50 per cent seats for Muslim students during admissions.

The notification was questioned before the Allahabad high court, which in January 2006 quashed it. The HC even struck down sections 2(L) and 5(2)(C) of the Aligarh Muslim University (Amendment) Act, 1981 which granted minority institution status to the university. The court said the sections were ultra vires of the Constitution.

Both AMU and the Centre had approached the top court in appeal. But in a U-turn, the Ndaled government in July 2016 withdrew its appeal and relied on the Basha judgement. The then Attorney General, Mukul Rohatgi, submitted that the Basha judgement could not be overridden, and according minority status to AMU would be contrary to the verdict. Rohatgi said the ruling still holds good.

An affidavit was subsequently filed withdrawing the Centre’s appeal and also all letters issued by the ministry of human resources development under the United Progressive Alliance regime. “This letter, along with any other letter issued from the MHRD supporting the minority status of the AMU, may be treated as withdrawn,” the affidavit had read. The AMU opposed the Centre’s move to withdraw itself from the case.