Established by Sir Syed and Muslims of India

Arati Bhargava interviewed AMU vice chancellor Lt. Gen (Retd.) Zameer Uddin Shah over e-mail. Excerpts: The Central government has expressed its intent to withdraw its appeal in the Supreme Court against the 2006 Allahabad high court judgement striking down AMU’s minority status. What’s your reaction? I was shocked and disappointed when I learnt about attorney-general Mukul Rohatgi’s statement in the Supreme Court that the Central government doesn’t recognise AMU as a minority institution. Earlier on March 5, I had led an AMU delegation to meet prime minister Narendra Modi and we had agreed that preservation of the university’s minority status would remove all misgivings the Muslim community has against the present government. A fair deal for AMU will convince India’s Muslim community that the prime minister’s assurance of sab ka sath, sab ka vikas (development for all) aren’t hollow words. Briefly, what is the historical backdrop of this controversy? Between 1951-1965 two amendments to the AMU Act, 1920 were passed by Parliament which have affected the character of AMU. They were challenged in the Supreme Court by well-wishers of the university. In 1965, one Mr. Azeez Basha moved the Supreme Court against government interference in AMU affairs. His contention was that having been established by the Muslim community of India, AMU is entitled to the right of self-administration conferred upon minority promoted educational institutions. In Azeez Basha vs. Union of India, the Supreme Court surprisingly upheld the contention that AMU was not a minority institution because it had been “established” by an Act of British legislature and not by Syed Ahmad Khan and the Muslim community of India. At the time, AMU was not made a party to the case and was given no opportunity to place its viewpoint on record. In my opinion the Supreme Court’s judgement in the Azeez Basha Case is flawed because the Muhammadan Anglo Oriental College, promoted by Sir Syed and other members of the Muslim community in 1877, was converted into a university in the only manner a university could be brought into existence, viz, by invoking the exercise of the sovereign authority then ruling India. Without government recognition, AMU, as a body corporate, would be an unreal abstraction. The statute conferred a legal personality on the college and got the university going. It was the Muslim community that provided lands, buildings, colleges and an endowment of Rs.30 lakh. This Rs.30 lakh endowment was a precondition of the British government enacting the AMU Act, 1920 to convert MAOC into a university. So AMU was ‘established’ by Sir Syed Ahmad Khan and the Muslim community. To correct this injustice, Parliament enacted the Aligarh Muslim University (Amendment) Act, 1981 on December 31, 1981. Section 3 (iii) defined AMU as “the educational institution of their choice established by the Muslims of India, which originated as the Muhammadan Anglo Oriental College, Aligarh, and which was subsequently incorporated as the Aligarh Muslim University.” But in 2006 the Allahabad high court struck down the AMU (Amendment) Act, 1981 and upheld…