New Delhi, India: In a landmark judgment, the Supreme Court of India has overturned a long-standing 1967 decision that denied minority status to Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). A seven-judge bench, led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, ruled in favour of AMU’s eligibility for minority status, entrusting a regular three-judge bench to ultimately determine the university’s minority standing under Article 30 of the Indian Constitution. This article grants rights to religious and linguistic minorities to establish and govern educational institutions, reports News18.
The bench ruled 4-3 in favour of AMU’s minority status, with Chief Justice Chandrachud, along with Justices Sanjiv Khanna, JB Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra, issuing the majority opinion. Meanwhile, Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta, and Satish Chandra Sharma dissented. The majority judgment clarified that an institution’s minority status depends on its establishment by a minority group, not necessarily its administration by minority members.
This ruling revives a prolonged legal debate surrounding AMU, an institution founded in 1875 as Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental College by Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and later converted to a university in 1920. Successive amendments to the AMU Act have impacted its minority character, especially since a 1951 modification that removed mandatory religious instructions for Muslim students.
The verdict revisits the 1981 amendment to the AMU Act, which sought to restore its minority character. However, the Supreme Court previously highlighted that this amendment fell short of fully reinstating AMU’s pre-1951 status. Legal arguments presented earlier this year included perspectives from veteran lawyer Kapil Sibal, who argued in favour of minority status under Article 30, and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, who contended that as a central university receiving substantial government funding, AMU cannot claim to be a minority institution.
The complex history of AMU’s minority status also involves a 2006 ruling by the Allahabad High Court, which struck down the 1981 amendment. In response, both the university and the former Congress-led government appealed to the Supreme Court. The BJP-led government, however, withdrew this appeal in 2016, asserting that AMU’s central status precluded it from being considered a minority institution.
Today’s ruling has reinvigorated discussions on the interpretation of Article 30 and its implications for AMU, as well as for other institutions grappling with questions of minority status amid central funding. The case will now move to a three-judge bench for a conclusive decision on AMU’s future as a minority institution.
