Reportedly the supreme court on friday overruled a 1967 verdict holding that since the aligarh Muslim university (AMU) is a central university, it cannot be considered a minority institution. The issue of whether the aligarh Muslim university is a minority institution is now left to be decided by a regular bench based on this view of the majority. A seven judge bench, headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, delivered four separate judgements on a vexed legal question of whether the aligarh Muslim university enjoyed a minority status under Article 30 of the Constitution which empowers the religious and linguistic minorities to establish and administer educational institutions.
Meanwhile CJI Chandrachud, on his last working day, pronounced the judgment on behalf of the majority (comprising himself, Justices Sanjiv Khanna, jb Pardiwala and Manoj Misra). Justices surya Kant, Dipankar Datta and sc Sharma dissented. The bench, by a majority of 4:3, ruled that the aligarh Muslim university is entitled to a minority status under Article 30 of the Constitution of India.
Moreover the nda government spearheaded by the bjp told the supreme court in 2016 that it would withdraw the appeal filed by the erstwhile UPA dispensation. It cited the apex court’s 1967 judgement in the Basha case to claim that AMU was not a minority institution since it was a central university funded by the government. Notably, the allahabad high court had struck down the provision of the 1981 law by which the university was accorded minority status. Appeals were filed in the apex court, including by the AMU, against the high court verdict.
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