Protests over order on AMU, parties rush in

AMU vice-chancellor Naseem Ahmed, addressing a press conference, said the university was keeping open the option of moving a higher court against the verdict.

In Aligarh, demonstrations were held both in favour of and against the HC order which quashed AMU’s minority status and held as illegal the reservation of seats for Muslims in post graduate medical courses.

Vice-chancellor Ahmed defended the reservation policy, saying its purpose was to ‘‘raise the standard of education’’ of Muslims and to restore the ‘‘pan-Indian character of the university.’’

In Lucknow, UP Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Mohd Azam Khan—he is at the centre of a controversy over the proposed Maulana Mohd Ali Jauhar University in Rampur of which he is pro-vice chancellor for life—lashed out at Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh, saying the basis on which the HC quashed AMU’s minority institution status was provided by Singh.

‘‘Details of the letter sent by Singh to implement the quota system for Muslim students in the university as per its minority status have become the basis of the court decision,’’ Khan said, adding that the letter was sent on the eve of Assembly by-elections to win Muslim votes.

‘‘The Union Government should move the Supreme Court against the Allahabad High Court decision or enact a new law to restore minority status of the AMU,’’ Khan said, warning of a massive students’ movement if it was not done.

In New Delhi, the HRD Ministry opted for a wait-and-watch policy. HRD officials said that the decision to implement the reservation was AMU’s own, and it was for the university now to appeal against the court order.

Officials claimed the Ministry’s role was only to endorse a decision taken by the AMU Academic Council in February to reserve 50 per cent of its seats for Muslims, evoking its status of a ‘‘minority institution,’’ granted by a 1981 amendment to the AMU University Act.

Striking down the AMU decision, the Allahabad HC said the 1981 amendment itself was unconstitutional.

Officials, however, pointed out that the 1981 amendment was the result of wide consultation and Parliament passed it with ‘‘near unanimity.’’

‘‘The amendment was brought to appreciate that AMU, unlike other Central universities, was established by a minority initiative,’’ an official said, pointing out that AMU started as the Anglo-Oriental College and the University came into being by the transfer of all properties of the college and Muslim University Association, in 1920.

The university has a specific mandate to ‘‘promote especially the educational and cultural advancement of Muslims in India.’’ And according to an order of an 11-judge bench of the Supreme Court, receiving grant from the government does not affect the minority status of an institution. These factors, officials said, could help the AMU appeal in a higher court.