New Delhi: A seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court in a 4:3 majority ruling has held that the Aligarh Muslim University’s minority status is not lost simply because it was incorporated through a statute. This judgment could pave the way for a regular bench of the court to declare AMU a minority institution.
The judgement overrules the 1967 judgment of the apex court in the case S. Azeez Basha vs. Union Of India, which held that an institution incorporated by a statute cannot claim to be a minority institution.
AMU was established through an imperial legislation – the Aligarh Muslim University Act – in 1920.
The constitution bench that delivered the verdict today had Chief Justice of India D.Y. Chandrachud, Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Surya Kant, J.B. Pardiwala, Dipankar Datta, Manoj Misra and S.C. Sharma.
In 2006, the Allahabad high court had held that AMU was not a minority institution. The apex court heard a reference arising out of this verdict, earlier this year and reserved judgement.
The majority opinion was read by CJI Chandrachud, on what is his last working day. In addition to him, Justices Sanjiv Khanna, J.B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra were part of the majority opinion.
AMU will be able to provide reservation of up to 50% for Muslim students if it is deemed a minority institution.
The court considered the question of what can be the basis of treating an educational institution as a minority educational institution – whether its founder or administrators’ religious or linguistic identity is to be considered.
Merely because the AMU was incorporated by an imperial legislation would not mean that it was not ‘established’ by a minority, the majority opinion held.
