The Hindu : New Delhi News : Storm brewing in AMU over admission formula

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, May 10, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Storm brewing in AMU over admission formula

Special Correspondent

New scheme sets aside 50 per cent seats for Muslims

NEW DELHI: A sizeable section of the faculty of Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) is up in arms over the decision to provide "communal" reservation in admissions. In an open letter, 65 serving and former members of the AMU faculty have called for withdrawal of the scheme that would not only affect the repute of the University but also the prospects of the students.

The AMU authorities last week approved a scheme for admissions as per which 50 per cent of all seats would be set aside for Muslim candidates. The new scheme -- which comes into effect in this academic year itself -- is applicable to all courses admissions for which are held through tests.

From this year 25 per cent of the seats will be filled through open competition, 20 per cent seats would be reserved for internal candidates on merit and 50 per cent of seats will be reserved for Muslim candidates who do not make it through the first two criteria. The remaining five per cent seats will be filled through nomination by the Vice-Chancellor to accommodate children of employees and alumni or candidates from the Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes. Such being the scheme of reservation, those opposed to the new regime said it does not factor in the mandatory reservation for SCs/STs.

According to the signatories to the public appeal, communal reservation was totally against the institution's traditions and violated Section 8 of the AMU Act as per which the University is open to all persons irrespective of religion. "Communal reservation on such a substantive scale grossly violates the letter and spirit of the University's charter,'' they claimed.

The faculty members were of the view that the "planned communal reservation will inject an intolerable amount of discrimination, on the ground of faith alone, among AMU's own students whenever they seek admission to higher courses in their own University''. Another apprehension is that such a reservation would depreciate the worth of AMU degrees in the public eye and hence adversely affect the employment opportunities of the students.

Besides expressing these concerns, the faculty members also questioned the rationale for such a move "since the present numbers of Muslims in all courses at AMU -- including elite professional and technical courses -- provide no ground for the fear that the high proportion of Muslims admitted under the system hitherto in force was in any way endangered''.

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