Centre’s stand ‘political’: AMU

The Aligarh Muslim University has taken exception to the Narendra Modi-led Government’s decision to deny minority status to it based on the Allahabad high court judgment quashing such status.

The AMU has urged the Supreme Court not to allow the Centre to withdraw its appeal against this verdict pending for a decade as such a decision is based on political considerations.

The then UPA government had challenged in the apex court the 2006 Allahabad HC verdict quashing the minority status. The AMU also filed an independent appeal against the same verdict. Now the Modi government has informed the apex court that it is satisfied with the HC verdict denying minority status and sought permission to withdraw its appeal. It is now up to the court to allow the Centre to withdraw its appeal and decide the case based on AMU’s appeal.

In July, the Centre filed an affidavit in the apex court before a three-judge bench headed by Justice J.S. Khehar seeking permission to withdraw the appeal stating that the AMU being a Central University cannot be granted minority status.

The Centre in its affidavit made it clear that since AMU was set up by a Parliamentary enactment, any such special privilege on religious grounds would be contrary to the country’s secular policy.