You can oppose Jamia minority status, Law ministry advises HRD

It was in pursuance of this 2011 order that the university discontinued reservation for SC/ST and OBC students and set aside half its seats in each course for Muslim candidates.

When the ruling was legally challenged, the HRD Ministry, under then minister Kapil Sibal, had submitted an affidavit in Delhi High Court stating that the government “respects the declaration made by NCMEI”.

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According to sources, the Law Ministry recently revisited the case at the behest of the HRD Ministry and advised that the government can withdraw its support to the NCMEI order.

The Centre used a similar argument to retract its predecessor’s stand on the minority status of AMU before the Supreme Court this week. Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi defended the revised position: “As the executive government at the Centre, we can’t be seen as setting up a minority institution in a secular state.”

Sources in the legal community said the present dispensation is of the opinion that the NCMEI order on JMI goes against Section 7 of the JMI Act of 1988 which states, “The university shall be open to persons of either sex and of whatever race, creed, caste or class, and it shall not be lawful for the university to adopt or impose on any person any test whatsoever of religious belief or profession in order to entitle him to be admitted therein as a teacher or student, or to hold any office therein or to graduate thereat.”

The Law Ministry and the HRD Ministry did not respond to questions emailed by The Indian Express. University Vice Chancellor Professor Talat Ahmad did not wish to comment on the matter. The Delhi High Court hasn’t listed a fresh date for hearing the JMI case.

According to Section 2 (o) of the JMI Act, the Jamia University was established by Muslim nationalist leaders in 1920 at Aligarh in response to Mahatma Gandhi’s call to boycott all educational institutions supported or run by the colonial regime.

It eventually shifted to Delhi and was run by a registered society called the Jamia Millia Islamia society. In 1962, JMI became a deemed university. In 1988, it got the status of central university through a central law.

Until 2011, the university was following the central government’s reservation rules for admitting students of SC/ST and OBC background. But the NCMEI order freed JMI of this obligation and it started reserving 50 per cent of its seats — 30% for Muslim applicants plus 10% for Muslim female applicants plus 10% for Muslim OBCs and ST — in every programme for Muslim candidates.

In its ruling, the NCMEI had stated: “We have no hesitation in holding that Jamia was founded by the Muslims for the benefit of the Muslims and it never lost its identity as a Muslim minority educational institution.”