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"To deny educational institutions of their recognition is to deprive them of their rights under Article 30", court was told today
CJI DY Chandrachud today questioned if an educational institution would lose its minority character after it is converted by a statute into a body corporate.
"At a certain level, what happens when a statue takes over an erstwhile institution and converts it into a statutory form, it becomes a body corporate, does that conversion deprive it of its minority character, or is that only a matter of form to convert the form which was society into a body corporate, or does that change in form completely destroy the minority character?", the bench asked today while hearing a plea by Aligarh Muslim University on retaining its minority institution status.
In response to this question, Senior Advocate Rajeev Dhavan said, "Azeez Basha judgment says universities can be a minority institution, this is an unresolved question that milords has to examine..if there is a statute, will the entire tertiary education of a university disappear..".
Dhavan further argued about the Union of India's stance changing before the Supreme Court in the instant matter following the change in government in power.
"How can because of a regime change, the Union of India can change its stance...they contended before the Allahabad High Court that S. Azeez Basha and Anr v. Union of India was wrong.. till 2005 they defended that statute..now that the regime has changed..If there is a policy change then stance of the government can change..I have relied on two judgments to say this..", Dhavan submitted.
Further submissions were made on importance of Articles 25 to 30 saying that "it is at the crux of what is to be done in this multi-diverse country..take away this aspect and the entire colour of our constitution changes..".
A Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court of India began hearing today the plea by AMU where it will be deciding on the question whether an educational institution created by a parliamentary statute enjoy Minority Status under Article 30 of the Constitution.
The bench also consists of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Surya Kant, JB Pardiwala, Dipankar Datta, Manoj Misra and Satish Chandra Sharma.
In 2005, AMU had reserved 50% seats in postgraduate medical courses for Muslim candidates by claiming it to be a minority institution. This came to be set aside by the Allahabad High Court. A year later, in 2006, the Union government and AMU challenged the High Court's decision before the Supreme Court.
Later, in 2016, the National Democratic Alliance government, withdrew from the appeal contending that it does not acknowledge the minority status of the University.
Case Title: Aligarh Muslim University Through its Registrar Faizan Mustafa vs. Naresh Agarwal and Ors.
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