House did half-hearted' job in amending act: SC

The Parliament did a "half-hearted" job in amending the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) Act in 1981, the Supreme Court remarked on Thursday, pointing out though the amendments sought to include the Muslim voice in the administration of the institution, it fell short of conferring the "complete minority character" on AMU.

- Utkarsh Anand

As the seven-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud reserved its judgment in the case relating to minority status of AMU, the court observed that the amendments made in 1981 changed the definition of the term "university" under the AMU Act to state that it was established by Muslims and made some other changes.

"So, it was really placating those sentiments. But when it actually came to the brass tacks, they did not go back to the position prior to 1951. And what they actually did was that it brought the Muslim voice into the AMU administration as we see it. But it still stopped short," commented the bench, which also comprised justices Sanjiv Khanna, Surya Kant, JB Pardiwala, Dipankar Datta, Manoj Misra and Satish Chandra Sharma.

The court added that the 1981 amendments did not restore the position that existed prior to 1951. After the Constitution was enforced, the original AMU Act of 1920 was modified to remove provision for compulsory religious education; to provide for the University to be open to students of all caste, creed, sex, etc; remove the requirement of all the members of the Court (administrative body of the University) to be Muslims.