New Delhi, March 24: The grant of minority status to Jamia Millia Islamia University by the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI) on Wednesday came under the scanner of the Delhi High Court which has sought responses from the Centre and others on a PIL.
“Issue notice to Human Resources Development Ministry, the Ministry of Minority Affairs …. for February 22, a bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Sanjiv Khanna said.
The High Court today admitted for hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) of Vijay Kumar Sharma, president of NGO ‘Yuva Bharti Samiti’, alleging that “the Jamia Millia Islamia Act, 1988, incorporates and establishes the university and dissolves the Jamia Millia Islamia Society, which was managing and running it, and the NCMEI has no jurisdiction or authority to declare it a minority institution.”
Besides the ministries concerned, the court has also sought responses from the Vice Chancellor of the University, the teachers’ association and five others including the students’ union.
The NCMEI headed by Justice M S A Siddiqui had recently granted “minority” status to the University which will enable it to reserve up to 50 per cent seats for Muslim students.
The Varsity will no longer have to give reservation to SC and ST students also, the panel, a quasi-judicial body, had said while allowing the petitions of students union, Jamia Old Boys Association and Jamia Teachers Association. The petitions were filed in 2006.
-PTI