The Aligarh Muslim University fraternity on Friday welcomed the Supreme Court's ruling on the institute's minority status, saying it reaffirms the foundation principles on which the institution was established.

Professor Faizan Mustafa, a constitutional law expert and former registrar of AMU, who had filed this case in the Supreme Court in his ex-officio position, told PTI, "It is a comprehensive win for minority rights in general and AMU in particular." The Supreme Court on Friday deferred the question of Aligarh Muslim Unversity's (AMU) minority status to a new bench and overruled the 1967 judgement that said the university cannot be considered a minority institution since it was created by a central law.

Dr Rahat Abrar, former director of AMU's Urdu Academy and historian, who played a prominent role in providing vital historical documents to legal experts in the case, said the judgement has validated the claims of the AMU community which had always maintained that the case should be decided based on historical evidence on the identity of those organizations and individuals who had envisaged the idea behind this institution and worked for its establishment.

Secretary of the AMU Teachers Association (AMUTA) Mohammad Obaid Siddiqui said the judgement "reaffirms the foundation principles on which this institution was established." The judgement reaffirms the idea behind the establishment of the institution for fulfilling educational aspirations, while also maintaining its commitment to an inclusive environment serving all sections of society, Siddiqui said.

In a majority verdict headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud, the bench laid down tests for considering the issue of AMU's minority status.

The 4:3 majority judgment authored by CJI Chandrachud, also on behalf of Justices Sanjiv Khanna, J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said, "The view taken in Azeez Basha (1967 verdict) that an educational institution is not established by minority if it derives its legal character through a statute, is overruled." A five-judge Constitution bench in the S Azeez Basha v. Union of India in 1967 said AMU was a central university and couldn't be considered a minority institution.

"The question of whether AMU is a minority educational institution must be decided based on the principles laid down in this judgement," the CJI said.

The outgoing CJI asked the case's judicial records to be placed before the regular bench, after receiving instructions from the CJI on the administrative side, for deciding the issue on the minority status besides adjudicating appeals against a 2006 verdict of the Allahabad High Court.

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