Delhi: By a vote of 4–3, the Supreme Court on Friday reversed its 1967 ruling in the Azeez Basha case, which served as the rationale for rejecting Aligarh Muslim University’s (AMU) minority status. It mandated that AMU’s status be reevaluated in accordance with the guidelines established in the current ruling.
The majority was made up of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, JB Pardiwala, and Manoj Misra, as well as Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud.
“The Azeez Basha ruling is overturned. The criteria established in this case must be used to determine whether AMU is a minority organisation. The majority held that papers should be presented to the CJI in order to form a bench that will decide the matter and the validity of the Allahabad High Court’s 2006 ruling.
Although it did not reach a factual conclusion on the matter, it established legal guidelines for determining an institution’s minority status.
According to the CJI, which read for the majority, a minority institution must be founded and run by a minority. He said that under Article 30 (1), minority institutions that existed before the Constitution would likewise be granted equal protection.