After years of controversy on the minority status of Jamia Millia Islamia University, the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI) on Tuesday granted it minority institution status. The Central university will now be allowed to reserve up to 50 per cent seats for Muslims, making it the only Central university with such status.
Tuesday’s ruling means that Jamia Millia Islamia will no longer have to give reservation to SC and ST students. “We have no hesitation in holding that Jamia was founded by the Muslims for the benefit of the Muslims and it never lost its identity as a Muslim minority educational institution,” chairman of the commission Justice M.S.A. Siddiqui said.
The decision came on the petitions by Jamia Students’ Union, Jamia Old Boys’ Association and Jamia Teachers’ Association filed in 2006, seeking minority institution status for the university.
Justice Siddiqui said Jamia will continue to enjoy the Central University status and the only “minority Central university” in the country given its unique character. “We find and hold that the University is a minority educational institution covered under Article 30 (1) of the Constitution of India with Section 2(G) of the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Act,” the judgment said.
The judgment recognised that Jamia was established for the purpose of keeping Muslim education in the community’s hands, free from external control. “We decided the case within the legal parametres,” Justice Siddiqui told reporters after delivering the verdict.
“The institute was founded even before the Constitution was in place,” the order stated. Jamia became a Central University by an Act of Parliament in 1988.
The Commission in its judgment held that “On a conjoined reading of Section 2(O) and 4 of the Jamia Millia Islamia Act along with the history and facts and events which led to the establishment of Jamia, we have no hesitation in holding that Jamia was founded by the Muslims for the benefit of the Muslims and it never lost its identity as a Muslim minority educational institutions”.
NCMEI is a quasi judicial body, with Mohinder Singh and Cyriac Thomas as its other members. The intervener in the case was Confederation of Muslims Educational Institutions of India while the respondents were the vice chancellor of Jamia, the Union Human Resource Development and Minority Affairs ministries.