Government examines AMU's minority status

Govt is examining all aspects including bringing an Amendment Bill in Parliament to restore minority character of AMU.

Government is examining all aspects including bringing an Amendment Bill in Parliament to restore the minority character of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), HRD Minister Arjun Singh said on Wednesday.

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"We are examining all aspects of this judgement. Bringing in Parliament an Amendment Bill is one of them and going in for appeal is another," he said addressing the Sixth Editors' Conference on Social Sector Issues in New Delhi.

He said that his ministry has just received a certified copy of the judgement of the Allahabad High Court which declared that 50 per cent reservation for Muslims was illegal and the status of the University as a minority institution was "ultra vires to the Constitution."

Singh had said earlier as Prime Minister Indira Gandhi got the AMU Act amended with near unanimity in Parliament. "This Government is committed to the decision she took."

To a question on empowering the National Commission on Minorities to decide on the minority status of an institution, he said that government was in the process of issuing an ordinance to empower the Commission to decide whether the provisions of the Act were properly used. "This has nothing to do with the AMU issue," he said.