New Delhi: The Union government on Tuesday (January 9) told the Supreme Court that Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) cannot be a minority institution given its "national character".

"Aligarh Muslim University is not and cannot be a University of any particular religion or religious denomination as any University which is declared by the Constitution of India to be of national importance should, by definition, cannot be a minority institution," Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said in his written submissions to the top court.

These remarks were made during a hearing on the minority status of the university, news agency Press Trust of India reported.

Mehta said the university has always been an institution of national importance, even in the pre-independence era, the report said.

"Therefore, as per the submission of the Union of India, the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) is an institution of a national character. A survey of the documents surrounding the establishment of the Aligarh Muslim University and even the then existing legislative position enunciates that the AMU was always an institution having a national character," the document said, as per PTI.

The declaration of AMU as a "minority institution" would exempt it from implementing the reservation policy, resulting in separate admission procedures. Mehta claimed that this could potentially have drastic consequences, especially for an institution of AMU's scale and history.

Also read: The Modi Government Is Wrong To Contest The Minority Character Of AMU

"It is submitted that a large national institute like Aligarh Muslim University ought to maintain its secular origins and serve the larger interest of the nation first," he said.

Referring to the AMU Act, he said that throughout the process of amendments to the law, the understanding of AMU's character being 'national' and 'non-minority' has been clear.

"Therefore, the mere omission of the word 'establish' from the Preamble and addition of 'established by the Muslims of India' in the definition of the University Section 2(l) of the Aligarh Muslim (University) Act cannot change the historical fact that the University was established by efforts of a large number of people, including the State, which had no religion, and by an Act of the Indian Legislative Council, which did not provide for a predominant minority character to the University," he said.

"The case of Aligarh Muslim University and Banaras Hindu University is sui generis (unique) case, since the framers of the constitution chose to place these two universities in List I as a part of Entry 63, though the subject of education is otherwise in the State List (at the time of independence). This exhibits the national character of the University and its stand," it said.

Long-standing debate on AMU's minority status

AMU's minority status has been caught in a legal battle since 1967 when, in S. Azeez Basha And Anr vs Union Of India, a five-judge constitution bench had held that since AMU was a central university, it cannot be considered a minority institution.

However, the university regained its minority status with the enactment of the AMU (Amendment) Act by Parliament in 1981. Subsequently, in January 2006, the Allahabad high court nullified the provision of the 1981 law that conferred minority status upon the university.

In response, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government appealed against the high court's decision, and simultaneously, the university filed a separate petition against it.

Also read: Is The Swirl Of Concerns About AMU's Minority Status Justified?

In 2016, the Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance government had told the Supreme Court that it will withdraw the appeal filed by the erstwhile UPA government. It had cited the apex court's 1967 judgment in the Azeez Basha case to claim that AMU was not a minority institution, according to PTI.

However, in February 2019, the Supreme Court held that the correctness of Azeez Basha has remained undetermined, and referred the matter to a seven-judge bench to decide whether the judgment is correct or not.

Although the discussion about the university's status is longstanding, the controversy gained renewed attention in 2018, in part, due to a statement made by Ram Shankar Katheria, who was the BJP MP from Agra and also the chairman of the National Commission for Scheduled Castes at that time.

Katharia had said “This is not Pakistan, the university has to follow the rules,” while referring to AMU’s exemption from implementing the reservation policy. The national commission then issued a statement saying that AMU will have to implement the reservation policy, as required by all central universities, unless it submits documents to prove its minority status.

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