The Supreme Court on Thursday said the 1981 amendment to the Aligarh Muslim University Act of 1920 stopped short of conferring complete minority character on the varsity and did not go beyond the 1951 amendment to the Act that had reduced the role of the Muslim community in AMU. Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, presiding over a 7-judge constitution bench, made the observation on a reference that arose from the 2006 verdict of the Allahabad High Court, which held that AMU which was established in 1920 was not a minority institution. The bench reserved its verdict on the minority status of AMU. “A thing that is worrying us is that the 1981 amendment does not restore the position as it stood prior to 1951. In other words, the 1981 amendment does a half-hearted job. I can understand if the 1981 amendment said ok we are going back to the original 1920 statute, confer complete minority character. They were placating that sentiment but when it actually came to the brass stacks, they didn't go back to the positions prior to 1951. And what it did was it brought the Muslim voice into AMU’s administration. As we see it, in the court for instance… but it still stops short. Even Parliament, which had the power to do it, still stops short of taking us back to the 1920 Act. They made a few concessions but they never took it back to its pre-1951 position,” the CJI said. The bench, also comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Surya Kant, J B Pardiwala, Dipankar Datta, Manoj Misra and Satish Chandra Sharma, was hearing the matter for the eighth day on Thursday. The comments came as Senior Advocate Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for AMU, took the court through the Act and amendments to buttress his case that the university was established and administered by the Muslim community, thereby making it a minority institution under Article 30 of the Constitution, which deals with the right of religious and linguistic minorities to establish and administer educational institutions. In 1967, a five-judge SC bench had in the case ‘S Azeez Basha vs Union of India’ held that AMU was not entitled to minority education institution status as it “was neither established nor administered by the Muslim minority”. It was held that it was established by an Act of the British Parliament and not by the minority community. AMU contends that the decision in the Basha case is incorrect and has urged the SC to revisit the same. The 1981 amendment was intended to undo the effect of the 1967 judgment. But in 2006, the Allahabad High Court struck down the 1981 amendment holding it “unconstitutional”. While Dhavan pointed to the representation of Muslims in the administration of AMU, the Centre and others opposing the university’s minority status claim pointed out that the 1951 and 1965 amendments to the Act further reduced the role of the Muslims in it.
