M A I N   N E W S

AMU moves SC against HC order
Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, April 8
The Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has moved the Supreme Court against the Allahabad High Court order striking down the central legislation providing 50 per cent reservation to Muslim students in the university and declaring that it was not a minority institution.

The AMU, which had been aggrieved with the High Court’s January 5 verdict, filed a special leave petition (SLP) through its counsel Ezaj Maqbool in the apex court registry.

The issue had snowballed into a major controversy with Muslim and Left leaders criticising the High Court verdict and Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh hinting of bringing another legislation to grant minority status to the AMU.

The main contention of the AMU was that the university established in 1920 by Sir Sayyed Ahmed Khan was for advancing education among the Muslims in the country and it was ,therefore, entitled to protection under Article 30(1) of the Constitution, which protects the right of minorities to establish educational institutions for their students.

Defending the 1981 amendment in the AMU Act by the Centre, providing for 50 per cent reservation in the university exclusively to students from the Muslim community, the SLP contended that the enactment was a step towards giving it a status of a minority institution.

Considering the historic background and aims and objectives behind establishing the university, it was clear that the purpose was to make it an institution for advancing the education among Muslim students, and therefore, the High Court’s findings were erroneous, the petitioner claimed.

The SLP said that Parliament had the competence and power to enact laws regarding the university under the central list.

A single judge bench of the High Court had earlier struck down the 1981 amendment in the AMU Act, holding it unconstitutional,while allowing a writ petition of some students which had challenged 50 per cent reservation to Muslims in the AMU.

When this was challenged by the AMU before a Division Bench of the High Court in an appeal, the same was upheld by it in the January 5 verdict.

The High Court had held that since the AMU was getting grants from the Centre, it could not be deemed to be a minority institution for protection under Article 30(1) of the Constitution.

The High Court had quashed the 1981 legislation on the ground that it was an attempt to overcome the apex court’s 1967 judgement, declaring that the AMU was not a minority institution.

Health Ministry favours quota 
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, April 8
The Union Health Ministry has favoured the proposal of 27 per cent quota for students of other backward classes in medical educational institutes under it. The Health Ministry has written to the Human Resource Development Ministry, which had sought its views on the proposal, officials said.

The reservation would be made in all medical courses, including postgraduate courses such as MD and MS in institutions like All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (Chandigarh) and Vardhman Mahavir Medical College (Delhi), Lady Hardinge (Delhi) and Jawaharlal Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education and Research (Pondicherry).

Currently medical institutes under the Union Health Ministry have 22.5 per cent reservation for SC and ST students. If the proposal for reservation for other backward classes is implemented, this figure would go up to 49.5 per cent.

The proposal to introduce reservation for other backward classes in the Central educational institutions is before the Union Cabinet. Parliament has passed the Constitution Amendment Bill, envisaging such provisions (hiking reservation and implementing it in Central institutions). The President has also given his assent to the measure.

Planning Commission member Bhalchandra Mungekar says, “I justify the reservation for OBCs in view of the current social injustice. This will create more access to education to students from the other backward castes.”

He also questioned the need for bringing up the issue of merit when reservations of any kind are announced. “Why does the elite class raise the issue of merit only when something is meant to be given to the backward classes? In any case the 27 per cent reservation will not serve the creamy layer but those who are in need for such reservation,” he said.

Asked whether the government should increase the number of seats in institutions, he said along with seats for general category students the government must also consider increasing the number of teaching posts proportionately.

The reservation policy having an adverse effect on the quality and prestige of higher education institutions has also become a talking point. What with some academicians fearing that students who make it through quota may not be able to live upto international standards. They point out that if students fail to perform then the reputation of the IITs and the IIMs will be at stake.

But those in favour of the reservation refute this assumption as well. “To assume that the quality of institutions will be affected is to presume that everyone else in India is dumb…that only the upper castes have intellect,” said Prof Jayati Ghosh, a member of the National Knowledge Commission.