Supreme Court Center: Aligarh University Cannot Be A Minority Institution

New Delhi: The Centre informed the Supreme Court on Tuesday that Aligarh Muslim University cannot be considered a minority institution due to its “national character.” The Supreme Court is now debating the hotly debated issue of AMU’s minority status.

As any university that has been designated as an institution of national significance cannot be a minority institution, it was said that AMU is not and cannot be a university of any one faith or religious sect. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta said in his written arguments to the Supreme Court that the university has always been a significant national institution, even during the time before independence. In 1875, the university was established.

Thus, the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) is an institution with a national character, according to the Union of India’s argument. The Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) was always an institution with a national character, according to an examination of the materials surrounding its founding and even the then-current legal stance, the document said.

It said, “It is evident that a university which was and is clearly an institution of national importance has to be a non-minority university,” alluding to discussions held in the Constituent Assembly.

“It is submitted that owing to the obviously secular ethos and nature of the nation and the Constitution, considering the fact that AMU is an institution of educational ‘national character’ it cannot be considered to be a minority institution irrespective of the question whether it was established and administered by the minority at the time of inception or not,” Mr. Mehta stated.

According to the senior law officer, AMU is not a university that mostly functions as a Muslim institution since the minority did not form and run it.

“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,” Mr. Mehta stated in his written submissions.

Regarding the implications of designating AMU as a “minority institution,” he said that, according to section 3 of the Central Educational Institution (Reservation in Admission) Act, 2006 (as modified in 2012), a minority educational institution is exempt from having to adopt the reservation policy.

“Despite being an institution of national importance with other institutes of national importance, Aligarh Muslim University would have a separate admission procedure,” the paperwork said.

According to Mr. Mehta, the impact of the aforementioned exception would be “drastic” since AMU is a big, venerable university with expansive grounds and a sizable freshman class.

“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.

Mr. Mehta stated that AMU is rated ‘A+’ by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), an independent body of the University Grants Commission, and that it is ranked ninth among universities and autonomous institutions in India according to the Ministry of Education’s National Institutional Ranking Framework-2023.

“The situation of Banaras Hindu University and Aligarh Muslim University is sui generis (unique) since the writers of the Constitution decided to include these two universities in List I as part of Entry 63, even though the State List (at the time of independence) covered education instead. This demonstrates the University’s national character and stance,” the statement said.

The solicitor general made reference to the AMU Act and said that it has become evident throughout the legal amendment process that AMU is a national institution with a non-minority status.

“Therefore, the mere omission of the word ‘establish’ from the preamble and addition of ‘established by the Muslims of India’ in definition of University section 2(l) of the Aligarh Muslim (University) Act cannot change the historical fact that the Aligarh Muslim 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 stated.

For the last several decades, the question of AMU’s minority status has been entangled in a legal web.

In the 1967 case of S Azeez Basha against Union of India, a five-judge constitution panel ruled that Aligarh Muslim University could not be classified as a minority institution since it was a central university.

But when the AMU (Amendment) Act was approved by Parliament in 1981, the storied institution that had been founded in 1875 regained its minority status.

The minority status granted to the institution under the 1981 statute was invalidated by the Allahabad High Court in January 2006.

The Allahabad High Court’s ruling was appealed by the UPA administration at the Center, which is run by the Congress. The university countered it with a different petition as well.

In 2016, the Supreme Court was informed by the BJP-led NDA government that the appeal brought by the previous UPA administration will be withdrawn. It had claimed that since AMU was a government-funded central university, it was not a minority institution, citing the high court’s 1967 ruling in the S Azeez Basha case.

On Tuesday, the case was taken up by a seven-judge constitution bench led by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud. The debates ended without a conclusion and will get back up on Wednesday.