Aligarh Muslim University Minority Status Case : Live Updates From Supreme Court Hearing

Dhawan : we have dived the antecedent into 3 phases, from 70-77- when the earlier idea of setting of Muslim university for the Muslim community for the betterment and advancement took place, MAO college was established; from 77 to 1910 the Muslim community rallied to convert the MAO and govt. agreed to convert the college and from 1910 - 1920 where the founders of the Muslim university actively engaged and succeeded in their desire to convert and incorporate the MAO

Dhawan takes the bench through the historical antecedents of the AMU across the three phases.

Dhawan: what we have seen is that a large no. of deemed universities under the UGC are declared to be minority institutions despite A Basha, and therefore we are required to see it from the constitutional lens and liberal education has to be combined with religious education.

Dhawan reads relevant paras from Azeez Basha v. UOI

Dhawan : the word establishment follows almost mechanically.

Justice Khanna : what will be the position post the enactment of the constitution? with regards to the universities which are founded or established thereafter.

Dhawan : because they recognise the antecedent history and just give It a go-bye. The point about the nexus and continuity, in St Stephens they go right through the origins and they say you look at the buildings and they are quiet clearly Christian in character.

Dhawan: in our view the reference has to be culled out by lordships, we say was A Basha correct in recognizing AMU's Muslim character but denying its constitutional significance while deciding the issue of its minority status which is at variance with St Stephens..

CJI : and therefore the minority institution doesn't lose its character according to your submission merely because various aspects of its existence are regulated by the statute including the administration of the institution, the state in public interest in entitled to regulate or the parliament the as the case maybe...

CJI : standards of examination, curriculum that all regulated by state, but that does not detract, because that applies across board whether minority or majority

CJI : you dont have to be administrating only religious courses, you can be administering a purely secular educational institution, that's one, secondly, the law is not that you only admit students of your community, you can admit from any community, without forcing because it is the right of establishment in administration.

Dhawan : It cannot all be muslim muslim muslim , because, after the constitution, all the universities have a liberal element in them. Representation to students, teachers, all that is there in our statutes.

Dhawan : that is the essential point, then you have "of their choice"

CJI : of their choice, and establish is you must have founded it, in administration, there is no constitutional definition of the expression administer. The courts have held what administration means but the right to administration itself is regulated by the statute...

CJI : Article 30 uses the expression - establish and administer, there is no absolute standard of administration that you must administer 100% would be an illusive standard. To make art.30 effective we don't have to postulate that the administration by the minority has to be an absolute administration, in that sense today in regulated society, nothing is abolsute... virtually every aspect life is regulated in some way or the other.

CJI : So merely because the right to administer is regulated by a statute and to certain extent is not untrammelled does not detract from the minority character of the institution.