AMU Must Provide Quota If It Fails to Prove Minority Status, Orders National Scheduled Castes Panel

New Delhi: Aligarh Muslim University's (AMU) reservation norms are once again under the scanner with the National Commission for Scheduled Castes stating that unless the varsity proves its minority status by August end, it will be ordered to follow the reservation policy as required by all central universities.

Stating that since the HRD ministry, the University Grants Commission and the National Commission for Minorities have all clarified that the university does not enjoy minority status, the panel’s chairman Ram Shankar Katheria told the Indian Express that AMU "has to follow the rules."

"This is not Pakistan," the BJP MP from Agra and former Union minister, said.

The Centre had opposed the minority status tag for AMU – and Jamia Millia Islamia – in the Supreme Court in 2016, but the matter still remains pending.

Katheria further claimed that during a meeting with the university's authorities on July 3, the registrar and the vice-chancellor had failed to furnish any proof of AMU's minority status, and while another month has been granted to submit such documents, "it’s clear that they do not have them."

According to the Indian Express report, the full committee of the SC/ST panel will now gather at the end of next month and in the absence of documents proving AMU's minority status, the varsity will be ordered to grant quota as required by all central universities in the country.

"The university has around 30,000 students and 15% of these seats should have gone to SC students and 7.5% to STs. If AMU fails to provide the documents, it will have to admit 4,500 Dalit students and 2,250 tribal students," Katheria was quoted by the daily as saying.

He further said that the university's refusal to provide reservation has resulted in denial of admission to five lakh students belonging to the SC/ST/OBC categories since 1951, when AMU was granted the status of a national university following an amendment in parliament.

As a counter argument, writing for The Wire, Wajahat M. Jilani recently stated that "in the whole scheme of things, the university (AMU) is playing a significant role in educating the underprivileged youth."

"As per the data collected by the National Institutional Ranking framework (NIRF) in 2016-17, the total number of students studying in various undergraduate and postgraduate courses at AMU stood at 17,259. Of these, 3,180 students hail from ‘socially challenged categories (SC, ST and OBC), whereas 14,011 are from ‘economically backward classes’. Therefore, there are a sizeable number of both socially backward as well as economically backward class students studying in AMU, albeit lower, but in the whole scheme of things the university is playing a significant role in educating the underprivileged youth."

AMU's minority status had become a contentious issue following the Uttar Pradesh SC/ST Commission’s notice to the university demanding to know why it has not provided quotas for Dalits and Adivasis despite receiving grants from Centre and making faculty appointments as a national university.

While Article 30(1) of the constitution gives all religious and linguistic minorities the right to set up and run educational institutions, including schools, colleges and universities, Katheria argued that AMU "does not qualify to be a minority institution under Article 30 (1) and this has been upheld by the Supreme Court ruling of 1968. The institute was granted the national university status by a parliament Act in 1951. In 1981, the then Congress government brought in an amendment to grant minority status but the Allahabad high court struck down the provision in 2005."

AMU vice-chancellor Tariq Mansoor, however, held that the 1981 amendment Act confers minority status to the university.

Mansoor told the Indian Express that while it was true that the Allahabad high court had overturned the amendment, the apex court had stayed the HC order in 2005, and thus "the amendment Act is still in force."

"Since the AMU hasn’t reserved a single seat for Muslims, there is no question of making any reservation for any community. In November 2017, the National Commission for Scheduled Castes itself passed an order that the matter is sub-judice,” the vice-chancellor said.

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