Aligarh Muslim University Is Of "National Importance": Centre Tells Supreme Court

The Centre government on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) is of “national importance” and cannot be considered an institution of any particular religion or religious denomination. The seven-judge bench of the apex court comprising CJI DY Chandrachud and Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Surya Kant, J B Pardiwala, Dipankar Datta, Manoj Misra and Satish Sharma began hearing the petitions on the validity of minority status adhered to AMU.

Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, in his written submission called the dispute as “national interest versus sectional interest” and citing Supreme Court“s Azeez Basha judgment in 1967 said that  it aptly decided that the university cannot demand the status of a minority institution.

“AMU is not and cannot be a university of any particular religion or religious denomination as any university which which is declared by the Constitution to be of national importance, by definition, cannot be a minority institution,” Times of India quotes as Centre is placing the argument before the Court.

However, senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan arguing for AMU, claimed that Centre”s assertion was an attempt to reduce the historical positioning of AMU and argued that University at first was a Mohammedan Anglo-Oriental College and laborious efforts of the Muslim community which donated to create a fund of Rs 30 lakh resulted in the setting up of AMU in 1920.

Centre claimed that the demand for minority status by the AMU is a tactic to evade responsibility allotted for universities by the UGC Act, which includes reservations to SCs, STs, OBCs, and economically weaker sections in admissions and employment to various posts in the university.

“National character of both BHU and AMU, which was set up specifically and admittedly on the lines of BHU, is evident from the fact that even though education as a subject was vested with provincial legislature, the 1935 Government of of India Act had placed these two universities under the control of federal legislature,” TOI quotes as Centre is saying.

The government the added that large national institutes like AMU should “maintain its secular origins and serve the larger interest of the nation first,” government added.

Rajeev Dhavan will continue his argument for the university on Wednesday.