Allahabad: After a division bench of Allahabad high court rejected the Centre's plea for restoring minority status of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), the enraged protestors went on a strike on Saturday.
The strike was jointly called by AMU Teaching Staff Association, its Students' Union and non-teaching staff association as well as other university employees' organisations.
The AMU has also decided to appeal in the Supreme court against the Allahabad High Court ruling, which revoked the minority status of the university and quashed the 50 percent quota for muslims.
Many have called the university the seat of Muslim politics. Over the years, politicians here have made a beeline to stress their secular credentials.
In 2006, the University decided to reserve 50 per cent of the total seats for Muslim students and the Human Resource Development ministry under Arjun Singh gave it the green signal.
However, when the minority reservation was challenged in the Allahabad High court, the HRD ministry decided to take a neutral stand saying the it was an independent decision by the AMU court.
Later, when the court set the decision aside, the ministry jumped into the fray to file a special application to review the judgment.
There is a lot of anger among the students of AMU who say that in 1968 the Supreme Court (SC) in a judgment had quashed minority status of the university saying the AMU had been established by an Act of Parliament.
The SC's decision was overruled in 1981 by the Indira Gandhi government, which amended the Act and gave AMU its minority status back.
This time again, as the decision fails to pass legal scrutiny, there is a lot of anger.
AMU officials justify the quota saying the university has a historical background and was set up for welfare of Muslims by Muslims.
They add that this does not mean the university is not open for other castes.
However, they stress on the fact that the university was meant for the upliftment of Muslims and thus the decision to give it a minority status.
The government is keeping its options open of approaching the SC in the hope that it will overrule the decision of the Allahabad HC.
"Let us examine judgment and see what has to be done now," HRD Minister Arjun Singh says.
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