Supreme Court overturns 1967 decision, regular bench will decide whether Aligarh Muslim University is a minority or not

In its decision regarding the minority status of Aligarh Muslim University, the Supreme Court has overturned its own decision given in the year 1967 in the Aziz Basha vs Republic of India case. The court has said that even if an institution is formed under the law, it can still claim to be a minority institution. Now whether the minority status of Aligarh Muslim University will remain or not, will be decided by the regular bench. In fact, a constitutional bench of seven judges of the Supreme Court gave this order by a 4-3 majority.

1967 decision overturned

In fact, in the year 2006, the Allahabad High Court did not consider Aligarh Muslim University as a minority in its decision. 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 bench of three judges of the Supreme Court referred the matter to a bench of seven judges. During the hearing, the question arose whether a university, which is being 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 also reserved the decision on February 1. Now in its decision, the Supreme Court has reversed the decision of 1967 and clarified that an institution created by law can also get minority status. However, for the final decision, the bench has sent the case to the regular bench.

Minority status was rejected in 1967

In the year 1967, in the case of Aziz Basha vs Republic of India, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court also rejected the minority status of Aligarh Muslim University. However, in the year 1981, the government amended the AMU Act and again retained the minority institution status of the university. In its 1967 decision, the Supreme Court had said that the institution which is established according to the law can claim to be a minority institution. A bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud comprising CJI DY Chandrachud himself, Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice JD Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra argued in favour of retaining the minority status of Aligarh Muslim University as per Article 30 of the Constitution. Justice Surya Kant, Justice Dipankar Dutta and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma, who were part of the bench, gave opposite arguments.