Jamia Millia Islamia
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Not a minority educational institution
The Times of India, Jan 16 2016
HRD opposed minority tag for Jamia
The attorney general's opinion that Jamia Millia Islamia is not a minority educational institution is in sync with the position taken by successive HRD ministers like Arjun Singh and Kapil Sibal. Clamour for granting `minority status' to Jamia began after UPA-I gave OBC reservation in admission to centrally-funded educational institutions.
Minority status' granted to it by quasi-judicial body National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI) helped Jamia avoid reserving seats for OBCs. UPA-II did not contest the decision of NCMEI.
Otherwise, HRD ministers and the ministry itself have been opposed to giving it minority status. In fact, in March 2010 Singh, who was no longer the minister, had written to then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh expressing fear that the prestigious central university might fall into the hands of fundamentalist forces if it is given minority status. But as demand or change in Jamia's status rom “secular“ to “minority sta us“ grew, Sibal asked minority affairs minister Salman Khurshid to provide ``data and historical facts as to why the position so far taken is inconsistent with reality“.
Sibal's letter to Khurshid included a comprehensive note on he historical character of Jamia as well as ``substance of the ssues that arose at the time of enacting the Jamia Millia Act n 1988. While admitting that he SC decision on the status of AMU would have some bearing on Jamia, Sibal had said ``that tself will not determine the fa e of Jamia. Sibal had not agreed with minority affairs ministry under Khurshid that the stand of the HRD ministry requires alteration. ``The charac er of the institution of Jamia Millia Islamia is to be adjudica ed upon by a court of law, Si bal had said. He had argued that ``each institution has a unique history and its character must be culled from the context in which it was set up. While the two ministers were exchanging notes, National Commission for Minority Edu cational Institutions in February 2011 granted minority status to Jamia Millia Islamia. The order changed the secular character of the central university and also gave it freedom not to give reservation to OBCs, Dalits, tribals and reserve up to 50% seats for Muslims.
The 51-page judgment, given by Justice M S A Siddiqui, Mohinder Singh and Cyriac Thomas, said, “We have no hesitation in holding that Jamia was founded by Muslims for the benefit of Muslims and it never lost its identity as a Muslim minority educational institution.“
“We find and hold that Jamia Millia Islamia is a minority educational institution covered under Article 30(1) of the Constitution with Section 2 (G) of the NCMEI Act,“ the order said.The institute was founded even before the Constitution was in place, it said.
NCMEI said Jamia's case as different from that of Aligarh Muslim University and Supreme Court's 1967 order in the Aziz Basha case--denying minority status to AMU --had no bearing on the Jamia case. In its judgment, SC had refused to recognise that AMU was established by the Muslim community .
The NCMEI order said, “Jamia did not owe its very existen ce to a statute. Since its founding in 1920 till the enactment of the Jamia Millia Islamia Act in 1988, Jamia never lost its identity. Even prior to the enactment of the Act, Jamia had legal existence of its own.“
The fight to do away with Jamia's secular status goes back to its inception. Perusal of the file on setting up of Jamia reveals that in 1987, when the university became a central university, the Cabinet Committee on Political Affairs and the HRD ministry refused to bow to pressure from the then chancellor Khurshid Alam Khan that a specific mention be made that Jamia would “promote especially the educational and cultural advancement of Muslims in India“.
Similarly , there were five other suggestions by Khurshid Alam Khan that the ministry refused to entertain on the ground that none of the other central universities had these features.
Faculty of Law, Jamia Millia Islamia
The Faculty of Law, Jamia Millia Islamia, was established in 1989. In addition to the five-year integrated BA LLB course, the faculty runs an LLM four-semester course in three streams - Personal Law, Corporate Law and Criminal Law - and a Ph.D. programme.
