Jamia Millia Islamia is not a minority institution, says Attorney General

New Delhi, January 15

The Attorney General has told the Central Government that Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia is not a minority institution since it was created by an Act of Parliament, days after he told the Supreme Court that the legislature never intended that the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) should be a minority institution.

In his opinion to the HRD Ministry, Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi is understood to have also quoted a 1967 Supreme Court judgement that had said that AMU was technically not a minority institution and the same principle applied to Jamia Milia Islamia.

The HRD Ministry had approached the Law Ministry, which had asked the AG for his opinion.The National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions declared Jamia a religious minority institution a few years ago. Jamia discontinued reservations for SC/ST and OBC students and set aside half its seats in each course for Muslim candidates.

Sources in the Law Ministry quoted Section 7 of the Jamia Milia Islamia Act of 1988 that states: “The University shall be open to persons of either sex and of whatever race, creed, caste or class, and it shall not be lawful for the University to adopt or impose on any person any test whatsoever of religious belief or profession in order to entitle him to be admitted therein as a teacher or student”.

Rohatgi told the apex court earlier this week that according to the Central Government, AMU was not a minority institution and that the Centre cannot set up a minority institution in a secular state.

(Courtesy :PTI)

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