Is Aligarh Muslim University entitled to minority status? Supreme Court hears

The seven-judge bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI), to which the matter was referred to in 2019, will resume hearing on Wednesday.

It will decide whether the minority status can be given only if the institute is established by a person belonging to the minority community.

In 2006, the Allahabad High Court had stripped the university of its minority status.

The then Congress-led coalition government at the Centre and AMU had moved an appeal against the high court order.

In 2016, when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was already in power for two years, the Centre told the Supreme Court that it was withdrawing the appeal filed by the previous regime.

During the hearing of the case on Tuesday, the Centre said the government's decision to withdraw the plea was based on "constitutional considerations alone", Hindustan Times reported.

The Centre told the top court that the previous government's decision to fight the case was "against public interest" and opposed to the public policy of reservation for marginalised sections, the daily added.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday said the university doesn't lose the minority status merely because its administration is regulated by a statute. 

In its 1967 Basha order, a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court directed AMU was not entitled to the minority status as it "was neither established nor administered by the Muslim minority".

In 1981, the minority status of the university was restored through an amendment to the AMU Act.