The Centre threw a surprise in the Supreme Court on Monday by declaring that the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) was never intended by Parliament to be a Muslim university.
Dealing with a January 5, 2006 judgment of the Allahabad High Court which struck down a policy of the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development to reserve 50 per cent seats in the university for Muslim students, the Government’s stand came in stark difference to earlier views held by its predecessors. The fresh stand was presented by Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi on Monday when the appeal filed by AMU was taken up by a three-judge Bench after a long hiatus.
Making the submission, Rohatgi said, “It is the stand of the Union of India that AMU is not a minority university. As the executive Government at the Centre, we can’t be seen as setting up a minority institution in a secular state.” He was referring to the Aligarh Muslim University Act, 1920 that was subsequently amended by Parliament twice in 1951 and 1981.
The stand stumped the Bench of Justices JS Khehar, MY Eqbal and C Nagappan who pointed out that this stand of the Centre was contrary to what was filed previously by the Centre before this court and the Allahabad HC. Justice Eqbal asked, “With the change in Government, can you change your standIJ” The Bench asked the A-G to file an affidavit in this regard and posted the case for hearing next on April 4.
Rohatgi told the Bench, “The stand taken by previous Governments was wrong. The law is what was held by the Supreme Court in S Azeez Basha case by a five-judge Bench on October 20, 1967. It said that AMU is not a minority institution. As per the Centre, this judgment still holds the ground. Now it is for the AMU whether it adopts a contrary view.”
For the university, senior advocate PP Rao echoed the court’s concern by arguing that an executive Government cannot say that an Act passed by Parliament is bad. According to him, the university, which was started in 1877 as Muhammadan Anglo-Oriental (MAO) College at Aligarh under the Allahabad University, was a Muslim institution even after AMU was created by 1920 Act. Rao sought a relook at the Azeez Basha decision by referring the matter to a larger Bench.
Rohatgi reiterated that the Centre’s stand had nothing to do with the change in the Government. So long as the law is bad, it must be held to be so, he said. As per the law declared by the 1967 SC ruling, it was laid down that “the AMU was neither established nor administered by the Muslim minority.” The court went to the extent to hold, “The Act may have been passed as a result of efforts of the Muslim minority, but that does not mean that the university, when it came into being under the 1920 Act was established by the Muslim minority.”