AMU will be granted minority status: Arjun Singh

    New Delhi: Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh on Tuesday assured that the Government is working to clear all doubts about granting minority status to the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). Singh said that the Centre is committed to its promise of providing minority status to the university. "It may be recalled that doubts were created about Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) being a Minority Institution," Singh said. "The former Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, had examined the issue and in 1980 Election manifesto had mentioned that all doubts on this account will be removed after the elections. As Prime Minister, she got the AMU Act amended with near unanimity in Parliament," he stated, adding "this Government is committed to the decision she took".

    Regarding the recent Allahabad High Court judgement disagreeing with grant of such status to AMU, Singh said that the Government would decide on further steps after receiving a certified copy of the judgement. "The Double Bench of Allahabad High Court has, according to reports, held that the 1981 Amendment of the AMU Act is ultra- vires and, therefore, AMU ceases to be a Minority Institution. On receiving a certified copy of the judgement of the High Court, we would decide on steps required to find a way to uphold the commitment of Smt. Indira Gandhi about AMU being a Minority Institution," he said. Meanwhile, former Member of Parliament and Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) court member Wasim Ahmad has urged all parties not to politicise the issue. "'The issue is the educational uplift of Muslims and the 50 per cent reservation to the community in the AMU was aimed at attracting better students of the community to the institution from all over the country instead of limiting it to internal students who were mostly Muslims residing in the neighbouring regions of Aligarh," he said. Ahmad said he also has spoken to Arjun Singh over the issue. He also expressed his faith in the Supreme Court "to which the university will soon be going after receiving full text of the High Court judgement". The Allahabad High last week withdrew the minority status of the university and said that the Act of Parliament on the issue was illegal. It also said that the faculty could not reserve seats for Muslims.

   The court also ruled as illegal a notification issued by the Government in February allowing the AMU to reserve 50 percent of its seats in post graduate studies for Muslims. It ruled hat admissions for the session of 2006-2007 will be free to all. However, those students who have been given admission earlier under a quota system and are studying in the university will continue to be a part of the university. The bench struck down section I and section 5 (2)(C) of the Aligarh Muslim University Amendment Act, 1981, by which the status of a minority institution was accorded to AMU. It observed that the Supreme Court in the Ajeez Basha case in 1968 had already quashed minority status of the university saying the AMU had been established by an Act of Parliament and enactment of a law by Parliament could not overrule the judgement. The SC's decision was overruled in 1981 by the Indira Gandhi government, which amended the Act and gave AMU its minority status back. The order was passed by a bench comprising Chief Justice A N Ray and Justice Ashok Bhushan on petitions filed by the Central government. The judgement has caused a political debate across the country. The Aligarh Muslim University is one of the three Central Universities in India. It is located Uttar Pradesh. Sir Syed Ahmad Khan, a great social reformer, started the Mohamaddan Anglo Oriental College (M.A.O. College), in 1875. In 1920, the college was converted into a full fledged University by an Act of Parliament. Today Aligarh Muslim University is one of the premier institutes of learning in India.

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