In a pivotal decision on Friday, the Supreme Court declared that the minority status of educational institutions like Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) remains unaffected by parliamentary statutes or the composition of its administration. The judgment, delivered by a Constitution Bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, decisively overrules the 1968 Supreme Court judgment in S Azeez Basha vs Union of India, which had previously stripped AMU of its minority status due to governmental regulation.
The bench, comprising Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Surya Kant, JB Pardiwala, Dipankar Datta, Manoj Misra, and Satish Chandra Sharma, clarified that the essential criterion for defining a minority institution hinges on its origins—who established it and the community’s involvement in its inception and funding.
“This administration by non-minority members does not affect the minority character of an institution,” the court stated. It further emphasized that minority institutions could promote secular education without necessitating minority community members in administrative roles.
The court also maintained that the government’s regulatory powers over minority educational institutions should not undermine their minority status. “Regulation under Article 19(6) is permissible as long as it does not infringe on the minority character of the institution,” the court noted.
Additionally, the verdict reinforced that Article 30 of the Constitution, which provides minorities the fundamental right to establish and administer educational institutions, also applies to those established before the Constitution was enacted. “Article 30 shall stand diluted if it applies only to institutes established post-Constitution,” the bench added.
The decision came after a series of hearings concerning whether AMU, a central university funded by the government and established by parliamentary statute, should be recognized as a minority institution under Article 30. The questions of law addressed were significant, focusing on the parameters for granting educational institutions minority status under the Constitution.
