A Constitution Bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud with Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Surya Kant, JB Pardiwala, Dipankar Datta, Manoj Misra and Satish Chandra Sharma overruled the 1968 judgment in S Azeez Basha vs Union of India in which it was held that minority character of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) had ceased because of parliamentary a law regulating the university.

"The view in Azeez Basha that minority character stops when statute comes into force is overruled. Whether AMU is minority or not will be decided as per this (today's) judgment," the Court held.

The Court said that in order to determine whether an institution is a minority institution, what needs to be looked at is who established the institution.

"The court has to consider the genesis of the institute and court must see who was the brain behind establishment of the institution. It has to be seen who got funds for the land and if minority community helped," the Court said.

This administration by non-minority members will not take away the minority character of an institution.

"We have held that to be a minority institution, it only had to be established by the minority and not necessarily be administered by the minority members. Minority institutions may wish to emphasise secular education and for that minority members are not needed in administration," the Bench ruled.

Thus, an institution will not cease to be a minority institute merely because government regulates it by bringing in a law.

The Court held that the government can regulate minority educational institutions as long as it does not infringe the minority character of such institute.

"An educational institution established by any citizen can be regulated under Article 19(6). This court has maintained that right under Article 30 is not absolute. Regulation of minority educational institution is permitted under Article 19(6) provided it does not infringe the minority character of the institute," the Court stated.

Pertinently, the Court further held that Article 30 of the Constitution which confers fundamental right on minorities to establish and administer educational institutions, applies even to institutions established by minorities before the Constitution came into force.

"Article 30 shall stand diluted if it applies to only institutes those which have been established after the Constitution came into force. Thus, educational institutions established by minority which were established before the constitution came into force, will also be governed by Article 30," the Court made it clear.

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