Minority status of Aligarh Muslim University will be decided afresh, a bench of 3 judges will take the decision…

New Delhi:- On Friday, the Supreme Court has given its verdict on the minority status of Aligarh Muslim University. The court said in the decision that the minority status of AMU will be decided afresh. For this, a bench of three judges has been formed. Let us tell you, the Supreme Court of the country gave this decision with a majority of 4-3.

While giving the verdict, the Supreme Court said that it will be the responsibility of the new bench to decide whether Aligarh Muslim University will remain a minority or not. The bench of 4 judges including CJI Chandrachud was unanimous. At the same time, the opinion of 3 judges was different. Chief Justice Chandrachud and Justice Pardiwala were unanimous. At the same time, the decisions of Justice Surya Kant, Justice Dipankar Dutta and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma were different. Along with this, the Supreme Court, in its decision by a majority of 4-3, repealed the 1967 decision in which it had said that Aligarh Muslim University would be refused minority status.

Chief Justice DY Chandrachud is retiring from his post on 10 November. Today is the last day of DY Chandrachud's tenure before retirement. In this case, a bench of seven judges had reserved its verdict on February 1 after hearing it for eight days, on which the verdict has now come.

The Supreme Court will rule on whether Aligarh Muslim University enjoys minority status under Article 30 of the Constitution, which gives religious and linguistic minorities the right to establish and operate educational institutions. This seven-member bench also includes Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice Surya Kant, Justice JB Pardiwala, Justice Dipankar Dutta, Justice Manoj Mishra and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma.

Let us tell you, on February 1, on the issue of minority status of AMU, the apex court said that the 1981 amendment to the AMU Act, which effectively gave it minority status, was done only 'half-heartedly' and the institute had been in existence since 1951. The previous situation was not restored. While the AMU Act, 1920 calls for the incorporation of a teaching and residential Muslim university at Aligarh, the 1951 amendment abolishes compulsory religious education for Muslim students in the university.

This contentious question has time and again tested the legislative acumen of Parliament and the ability of the judiciary to interpret complex laws relating to an institution which was established in 1875 by members of the prominent Muslim community under the leadership of Sir Syed Ahmed Khan in the Mohammedan Anglo- It was established as Oriental College. Several years later in 1920, it was transformed into a university under the British Raj.
Concluding the arguments, Justice Chandrachud said that one thing that is worrying us is that the 1981 amendment does not restore the situation before 1951. In other words, the 1981 amendment is a half-hearted effort. The Chief Justice said that I can understand that if the 1981 amendment had said… Okay, we are going back to the original law of 1920, giving it full minority character.

Earlier, the NDA government had refused to accept the 1981 amendment to the AMU Act and had insisted that the court go by the 1967 judgment of a five-judge Constitution bench in the S Aziz Basha vs Union of India case. Needed. The Constitution Bench had then held that since AMU is a central university, it cannot be considered a minority institution. The top court had said that it would have to see what the 1981 amendment did and whether it restored the institution to the status it had before 1951.

At the same time, those who presented the opinion in favor of giving minority status to this institution, including senior lawyer Kapil Sibal, argued that only 37 members of the 180-member Governing Council are Muslims, which would damage its credibility as a Muslim minority institution. Does not reduce. Others, like Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, argued that a university that receives huge funds from the Center and is declared an institution of national importance cannot claim affiliation to any particular religious sect.

He had also argued that after the amendment of the AMU Act in 1951, when the Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College transformed itself into a university and started receiving funds from the central government, the institution gave up its minority character. A lawyer opposing minority status to AMU had even claimed that it has received more than Rs 5,000 crore from the central government between 2019 and 2023, which is almost double the amount of money received by central university Delhi University. Is.
Some of them had even argued that the prominent people of the Muslim community who had lobbied the then British government to establish this institution as a university with the aim of promoting education among Muslims, were themselves He did not consider them as a religious minority in undivided India and advocated the two-nation theory.

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