News Brief
Supreme Court Overrules 1967 Judgment, Minority Status Of Aligarh Muslim University To Be Decided By New Bench—All About It
The Supreme Court of India.
A seven-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, in a 4:3 majority ruling, overruled a key 1967 judgment on the Aligarh Muslim University, which removed minority status of the varsity.
However, the Constitution bench led by Chief Justice Of India D Y Chandrachud, who retires today, left to another (as yet not constituted) bench to decide if the AMU should be granted minority status again.
The Constitution bench struck down an earlier ruling that said an institution incorporated by a statute could not claim minority status, but left the question as it pertains to AMU to be decided by a regular bench.
The three dissenting judges on the Constitution bench today were Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta, and SC Sharma, while three others - Justices Sanjiv Khanna (who will be the next Chief Justice), JB Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra, as well as the outgoing Chief Justice, held the majority.
The verdict came in a batch of petitions concerning whether Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) is entitled to minority status under Article 30 of the Constitution of India.
The Supreme Court had in February reserved its judgment in the matter, after a eight-day hearing.
The matter was referred to a seven-judge in February 2019 by a bench led by then CJI Ranjan Gogoi.
AMU was held to be a Central University by the Supreme Court in the 1968 case of S Azeez Basha vs Union of India. In the said case, the Court also held that a minority status under Articles 29 and 30 of the Indian Constitution cannot be conferred on a Central University.
However, the minority status of the institute was later reinstated by bringing in an amendment to the AMU Act of 1920. The amendment was brought about in the year 1981.
This was challenged before the Allahabad High Court which in 2006 set aside the move as being unconstitutional, leading to the instant appeals by AMU before the Supreme Court.
