Press Note
Maulana Khalid Rasheed Farangi Mahli, Chairman of the Islamic Centre of India, described the Supreme Court’s decision on the minority status of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) as a landmark judgment. He welcomed the decision, noting that the Supreme Court, by a 4:3 majority, overruled its 1967 ruling that AMU could not claim minority status because it was created by a statute.
The matter of AMU’s minority status will now be reviewed by a regular bench to determine if it was indeed established by a minority. He highlighted that on July 20, 1872, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan appealed to Muslim princely states for donations to establish an educational institution for the Muslim community. On April 24, 1875, he founded the Madrasatul Uloom, which marked the institution’s beginnings. It became a college on January 8, 1877, and in 1920, it evolved into the Aligarh Muslim University, providing modern education within an Islamic environment to foster scientific thinking among Muslim students.
Khalid Rasheed further emphasized that AMU was founded by Muslims, for Muslim education, and supported by donations from the Muslim community. He questioned, “If AMU is not considered a minority institution, then which institution would be, and what is the true purpose of Article 30?”
