The Supreme Court, in a close 4-3 decision, has overturned a 1967 judgment that had previously formed the basis for denying Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) minority status.
However, the court left the final determination of AMU’s minority status to a three-judge bench, which will re-evaluate the issue in light of the new principles outlined in this judgment.
The ruling was delivered by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, with Justices Sanjiv Khanna, JB Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra concurring. The case, which revisits AMU’s eligibility for minority status under the Indian Constitution, included separate judgments with three dissenting opinions from Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta, and Satish Chandra Sharma. This bench had reserved its verdict on February 1 after eight days of arguments.
During the February hearing, the Supreme Court noted that the 1981 amendment to the AMU Act, which intended to restore minority status to the university, was a “half-hearted” effort and did not fully reinstate AMU’s pre-1951 status. The AMU Act of 1920 initially established a teaching and residential Muslim university in Aligarh, but a 1951 amendment removed the requirement for compulsory religious instruction for Muslim students, altering its foundational ethos.
AMU’s minority status has long been a contentious issue, challenging both Parliament's legislative authority and the judiciary’s interpretative role in resolving complex legal questions. Established in 1875 as the Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and others, it was officially designated a university in 1920 during the British Raj.
"One thing which is worrying us is that the 1981 amendment does not restore the position as it stood prior to 1951. In other words, the 1981 amendment does a half-hearted job," Justice Chandrachud had said while proceeding to close the arguments.
“I can understand if the 1981 amendment had said... okay, we are going back to the original 1920 statute, confer complete minority character on this (institution),” the CJI had said.
The BJP-led NDA government had previously opposed the 1981 amendment to the AMU Act, urging the court to follow the precedent set in the 1967 S. Azeez Basha vs. Union of India case. In that decision, a five-judge Constitution bench held that AMU, being a central university, could not qualify as a minority institution.
In a significant development, the Allahabad High Court later struck down the 1981 provision granting minority status to AMU, prompting multiple appeals, including one from AMU, to the Supreme Court challenging this ruling.
The issue of AMU’s minority status has remained mired in legal disputes for decades. In 2019, the Supreme Court referred the matter to a seven-judge bench, marking the second time a similar reference had been made since 1981.
Following the 2006 Allahabad High Court verdict that annulled the 1981 amendment, the Congress-led UPA government filed an appeal, and AMU itself submitted a separate petition seeking to retain minority status. However, in 2016, the BJP-led NDA government informed the Supreme Court of its intention to withdraw the UPA's appeal, reaffirming reliance on the 1967 Basha judgment to assert that, as a centrally funded university, AMU could not be deemed a minority institution.
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