No reservation to Muslim candidates in admissions or recruitment: AMU
Aligarh (UP) (PTI): The Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) has denied claims that it extends reservation on religious grounds to Muslim candidates in admissions and recruitment, asserting that it has no such system in place.
The university said this in a statement on Monday, days after the Supreme Court held that the legal question over the AMU's minority status would be decided by a new bench and overruled a 1967 judgment that said the university cannot be considered a minority institution since it was created by a central law.
AMU officials have been denying for the last three days claims that a system of reservation of seats for Muslims is being implemented in student admissions and employment of staff at the university.
"The Aligarh Muslim University gives no reservation to Muslim candidates either in admissions in different courses offered by the university or in the recruitment, as has been reported by some media outlets, after the recent judgement of the seven-judge bench of the Supreme Court of India," Prof Mohammad Asim Siddiqui of the AMU's Public Relations Office said in the statement.
"AMU has an internal quota system for the students passing out from the schools run by the university. When these students seek admission in the university, they are considered internal and 50 per cent of seats are reserved for them regardless of their religion or faith, subject to eligibility requirements," it said.
Siddiqui added, "Reports about reserving seats for Muslim candidates in AMU are false and misleading."
While referring to the university's minority status at a rally here on November 9, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said the matter is being decided by the Supreme Court, but added, "Such an institution, which is nurtured by India's resources and runs on public taxes, does not give reservation to the backwards, scheduled caste or tribal people, but is arranging 50 per cent reservation for Muslims."
"The Constitution of India provides reservation to the people of backward castes based on the reports of Scheduled Castes-Tribes and Mandal Commission, but why is this facility not available in AMU," he posed.
Adityanath also argued that when the country's money is being invested in the university, people should get the benefit of reservation there too.
Last Friday, the Supreme Court deferred the question of AMU's minority status to a new bench. In a majority verdict headed by the then Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud, the bench laid down tests for considering the issue of AMU's minority status.
The 4:3 majority judgment authored by Chandrachud said, "The view taken in Azeez Basha (1967 verdict) that an educational institution is not established by minority if it derives its legal character through a statute, is overruled."
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Wayanad LS bypoll: Priyanka crosses lead achieved by Rahul in 2024 Lok Sabha polls
Wayanad (Kerala) (PTI): Top Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was on Saturday comfortably cruising towards her maiden electoral win from Wayanad in Kerala, as she surpassed the lead achieved by her brother Rahul Gandhi in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls earlier this year with party leaders and ally IUML predicting a big win for her amid the counting trends.
The Congress-led UDF's candidate from this hill constituency, Priyanka, extended her lead by over 3.8 lakh votes after five hours of counting of the ballots in the Wayanad Lok Sabha bypoll, according to the Election Commission.
Reacting to the lead achieved by Priyanka, Congress' ally Indian Union Muslim League and Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy said she would get more votes than her brother Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha polls in April this year and will win by a record margin.
"An amazing first trend on counting day is the massive early lead for our leader @priyankagandhi ji in Wayanad, Kerala, by-election. People of Wayanad are surely going to record in victory margins today and Priyanka ji will make Parliamentary debut with a grand win," Reddy said in a post on 'X'.
IUML supremo Panakkad Sadiq Ali Shihab Thangal said that going by the trends, Priyanka will get more votes than what Rahul got and the majority she achieves would also be higher than that of her brother.
A similar view was expressed by IUML's national general secretary P K Kunhalikutty.
On the other hand, BJP leader Anil K Antony, earlier in the day, had claimed that though Priyanka has achieved a good lead, her victory margin would be less than what Rahul got in the 2024 and 2019 LS polls in the hill constituency.
According to the latest EC figures, Priyanka had a lead of 3,82,975 with 5,78,526 votes. LDF's Sathyan Mokeri was behind her with 1,95,551 votes and NDA's Navya Haridas was in the third spot with 1,04,947 votes.
Rahul had got 6,47,445 votes and won by a margin of 3,64,422 votes against his nearest rival, CPI's Annie Raja, in the LS polls this year. In 2019, he had got 7,06,367 votes and had won by a margin of 4,31,770 votes.
After winning from Rae Bareilly in Uttar Pradesh as well, in this year's polls, Rahul vacated the Wayanad seat, and the party nominated his sister Priyanka, paving the way for her electoral debut.
The bypoll turnout in Wayanad, which has over 14 lakh registered voters, was around 65 per cent, a decline from the close to 74 per cent in the LS polls held in April this year and much lower than the over 80 per cent turnout in the hill constituency in the 2019 general elections.
The counting of votes commenced at 8 am with postal ballots being taken up first.
The strong rooms, where the EVMs were kept, were opened more than an hour before counting began.
The bypoll for the Wayanad Lok Sabha seat was held on November 13.
Of the 16 candidates who contested, the main contenders are Priyanka, ruling CPI(M)-led LDF's Sathyan Mokeri, a political veteran, and BJP-headed NDA's Navya Haridas.
