New Delhi: Speaking to media, noted lawyer and former chief of National Minority Commission Prof. Tahir Mahmood said denial of minority status of Jamia Millia Islamia is like denying the of historical facts and tantamount to snatching away constitutional rights of minorities. He said Jamia Millia is the child of Aligarh Muslim University, after becoming adult, it didn’t do ‘dharam parivartan’, hence its descendancy as a minority institution is continued even today.
Prof. Mahmood said if Maulana Mahmood Hasan, Mohammed Ali Jauhar, Hakeem Ajmal Khan, Dr. Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari and Abdul Majeed Khaja were Muslims, then no one can deny that Jamia was founded by Muslim Minority.
Explaining its legal status, Prof Tahir Mahmood said Jamia’s minority status remained even after the university acquired the status of a deemed to be university in 1963 under the UGC Act, 1956 and even after it became a Central University by an act of the Indian Parliament in 1988. Because there is a lot of difference between establishing a new university and giving university status to an existing institution. In latter case the historical status of the institution doesn’t change.