Supreme Court
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In its decision regarding the minority status of Aligarh Muslim University, the Supreme Court has overturned its own decision given in the case ‘Aziz Basha vs. Republic of India’ in the year 1967. The court has said that even if an institution is formed under the law, it can still claim to be a minority institution. Now the regular bench will decide whether the minority status of Aligarh Muslim University will remain intact or not. In fact, the constitutional bench of seven judges of the Supreme Court gave this order with a majority of 4-3.
The Supreme Court had reserved its decision on February 1.
In the year 2006, Allahabad High Court in its decision did not consider Aligarh Muslim University as a minority institution. A petition was filed in the Supreme Court against the decision of the High Court. During the hearing on which in the year 2019, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court had sent the case to a seven-judge bench. During the hearing, the question raised was whether a university, which is administered by the government, can claim to be a minority institution? After completing the hearing on this matter, the seven judge bench of the Supreme Court had reserved its decision on February 1. Now in its decision, the Supreme Court overturned the decision of 1967 and made it clear that even an institution created by law can get minority status. However, the bench has referred the matter to the regular bench for the final decision.
The Supreme Court had rejected the minority status of AMU in its 1967 decision.
In the year 1967, in the case of Aziz Basha vs. Republic of India, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court had also rejected the minority status of Aligarh Muslim University. However, in the year 1981, the government again restored the status of minority institution of the university by amending the AMU Act. In its 1967 decision, the Supreme Court had said that an institution which has been established as per law cannot claim to be a minority institution. From the bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, CJI DY Chandrachud himself, Justice Sanjeev Khanna, Justice JD Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra argued in favor of maintaining the status of Aligarh Muslim University as a minority institution as per Article 30 of the Constitution. The bench comprising Justice Surya Kant, Justice Dipankar Dutta and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma gave contrary arguments.
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