New Delhi: HC seeks stand of Centre, Jamia on EWS quota

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday sought the stand of the Centre and Jamia Millia Islamia on a plea seeking directions to ensure 10 per cent reservation for students from economically weaker section (EWS). A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad issued notice to Jamia, Ministry of Education and University Grants Commission (UGC) on the public interest litigation filed by law student Akanksha Goswami. In her plea, Goswami said that the university ought to reserve seats for EWS category students at the time of admission from the academic year 2023-2024 in terms of the Constitution (One Hundred and Third Amendment) Act, 2019 which provides for 10 per cent reservation for them in higher education and government jobs.

Lawyer Pritish Sabharwal appeared for Jamia and said it is a minority institution which has certain privileges under the law. Senior advocate Arun Bhardwaj, representing the petitioner, contended that Jamia should be directed to implement the EWS reservation as it was a central university which received aid from the UGC. The court directed that the petition be listed for further hearing on April 18 when another matter concerning the minority status of Jamia is also coming up for consideration.

The petitioner, also represented by lawyers Akash Vajpai and Ayush Saxena, said Jamia Millia Islamia was established by an act of Parliament and is thus a central university and not the minority one. The plea asserted that UGC has already written to the registrars of all the central universities, including Jamia, to implement the reservation for EWS students.

"Respondent No.2 (UGC) through its letter dated 18.01.2019 requested all Vice chancellors of the central universities including Respondent No. 1 to implement 10 % EWS reservation at the time of admission in their different courses from the academic year 2019-2020. Respondent No. 1/ Jamia Millia Islamia issued press/release on 05.02.2019 through which it refused to implement 10% EWS reservation citing its status as minority institution under article 30 of the Constitution of India," the plea said.

Besides the reservation, the petitioner has also prayed for setting aside of an order passed by the National Commission for Minority Educational Institution, which had declared Jamia as a minority institution. The petition stated that Jamia is nether established nor administered by the minority community as it is established by the Act of the Parliament and is also funded by the Government of India. It further said there is no provision in the Jamia Millia Islamia Act 1988 to allow selection of only persons from Muslim community as members to its executive and academic council and treating a central university as a minority education institution is repugnant to law.