The Supreme Court said that the recognition of history and historical events by enacting laws lies in the domain of the parliament.
A batch of petitions concerning the minority status of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU)is currently been heard by the Constitution Bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justice Sanjiv Khanna, Justice Surya Kant, Justice JB Pardiwala, Justice Dipankar Datta,Justice Manoj Misra and Justice Satish Chandra Sharma.
The CJI said that the 1981 AMU Amendment Act was brought to recognise the historical fact that it was established by the Muslims of India.
The Central Government was represented by Solicitor General (SG) Tushar Mehta,who stated that it was a part of the election manifesto.
The SG further said that the court should understand the danger of the Parliament given permission to recognise hundreds of years ago history.
The CJI said that, the recognition ofthe same lies in the parliament’s exclusive domain however the matter is subject to constitutional validity, of course.
The matter involves concerns regarding the parameters for granting an educational institution minority status under Article 30 and whether a centrally-funded university established by parliamentary statute could be designated as a minority institution. In February 2019, the matter was referred to a seven judge bench headed by then CJI Ranjan Gogoi.
In the 1968 case of S Azeez Basha vs Union of India, AMU was held to be a central university by the Supreme Court. In this case, the top court held that a minority status under Article 29 and 30 of the Indian Constitution cannot be conferred on a Central University. Nonetheless, the minority status of AMU was later reinstated by bringing in an amendment to the AMU Act.
This was further challenged before the Allahabad High Court which set aside the decision as being unconstitutional leading to the instant appeals by AMU before the Supreme Court. In 2016, the Central government withdrew its appeal in the matter.
Yesterday marked the sixth day of hearing in the case.