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The Supreme Court on Friday overruled by 4:3 majority the S Azeez Basha versus Union of India case which in 1967 held that since the Aligarh Muslim Univeristy was a Central university, it cannot be considered a minority institution.
The majority verdict said the issue of AMU minority status to be decided by a regular three-judge bench. The bench said that in order to determine whether an institution is a minority institution, what needs to be looked at is who established the institution. This administration by non-minority members will not take away the minority character of an institution, the apex court verdict said. It further held that the government can regulate minority educational institutions as long as it does not infringe the minority character of such institute. The CJI wrote the majority opinion for himself and Justices Sanjiv Khanna, JD Pardiwala and Manoj Misra. Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta and Satish Chandra Sharma gave dissent verdict. The apex court verdict came on a reference arising out of the 2006 verdict of the Allahabad High Court which held that AMU was not a minority institution. A five-judge Constitution bench had in the S Azeez Basha versus Union of India case in 1967 held that since AMU was a Central university, it cannot be considered a minority institution. The university got back its minority status when Parliament passed the AMU (Amendment) Act in 1981. However, in January 2006, the Allahabad High Court struck down the provision of the 1981 law by which the university was accorded the minority status. Later, the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre approached the top court in appeal against the Allahabad High Court order. The university also filed a separate petition against it. The NDA government led by the BJP in 2016 told the apex court that it will withdraw the appeal filed by the erstwhile UPA government. The top court had on February 12, 2019 referred the case to a seven-judge bench. During the hearing by the seven-judge bench, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Centre, has told the apex court that there was no concept of minority or minority rights in 1920. The AMU Act came into being in 1920. The Union government argued that an institution of national importance cannot be given a minority status, as it would mean that the institution would be beyond the access of several sections of the society and would exclude reservations for SC/ST/SEBC categories. (ANI)
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