It may be tempting for those who have a taste for sectarian politics to either condemn Tuesday’s Allahabad High Court judgment, for partisan reasons, or welcome it, for equally slanted purposes. Neither response does justice to the spirit of a verdict that seeks to correct the apparent anomaly of a law overruling a Supreme Court judgment. In the 1968 case, the apex court had observed that the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) was created by an act passed by the central legislature and was not established by a “minority” community. For more evidence of this, one need only refer to the 1883 statement of AMU’s famous founder, Sir Syed Ahmad Khan. He had laid down that his university would not discriminate between Muslims and Hindus.In any case, even though the high court chose to strike down the 1981 act as unconstitutional, since it appeared to overrule the 1968 verdict, that law does not — interestingly enough — grant formal minority status to AMU. On the contrary, while it recognises AMU as an educational institution established by the “Muslims of India”, it did not change the policy of admissions — which is the issue at dispute in the latest case — and saw it as being “open to all persons”. Incidentally, Article 30 of the Constitution — which protects minority institutions — is interpreted to apply only in the case of those institutions that are privately owned and not state-financed. In other words, the decision of the UPA government earlier this year to reserve 50 per cent of seats in post-graduate courses for Muslims in AMU is, by any yardstick, legally untenable.AMU authorities appear ready to challenge the ruling in the Supreme Court. This, of course, they have the right to do. However, we would argue that they should regard the Allahabad High Court verdict, not as a reversal, but as an opportunity. An opportunity to re-formulate policy in keeping with the spirit of Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, and re-create an outstanding institution of higher learning that will benefit all students. AMU could emerge from such an exercise with its authority and reputation greatly enhanced, as a shining example of the commitment Muslims in India have to education. Holding AMU hostage to narrow definitions of community would be doing it a disservice.
