Supreme Court Rejects Plea Challenging Prof Naima Khatoon's Appointment As Aligarh Muslim University's Vice Chancellor
The Supreme Court today(September 8) refused to interfere with the appointment of Professor Naima Khatoon as the first woman Vice-Chancellor of Aligarh Muslim University.
A bench comprising Justice J.K. Maheshwari and Justice Vijay Bishnoi dismissed the Special Leave Petition filed by Professor Muzaffar Uruj Rabbani and Professor Faizan Mustafa against the Allahabad High Court's order, which upheld Professor Khatoon's appointment.
Earlier, the bench comprising Chief Justice of India BR Gavai, Justice K Vinod Chandran and Justice NV Anjaria, had orally questioned the presence of Prof.Khatoon's husband, Professor Mohd. Gulrez, then officiating Vice-Chancellor, in the Executive Council meeting that shortlisted her name for the panel. However, the matter was later assigned to the present bench, after Justice Vinod Chandran recused from hearing, citing that he (as the Chief Justice of the Patna High Court) had appointed Prof.Mustafa as the VC of CNLU. Although the Solicitor General expressed the Union had no objection to Justice Chandran hearing the matter, the Judge chose to recuse himself, saying that since the issue related to alleged bias in selection, it was appropriate that he also recused due to his professional connection with one of the petitioner.
The primary ground of challenge was that the appointment of Professor Khatoon was vitiated since her husband had presided over the meeting of the Executive Council and University Court, which included her name in the panel to be sent to the Visitor.
Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, assisted by Advocates Nizam Pasha, Lzafeer Ahmad B F, Sidharth Kaushik, Awstika Das, Arif Ali, and Madhav Deepak, appeared for the petitioner.
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati appeared for the respondents.
Case: MUZAFFAR URUJ RABBANI Vs UNION OF INDIA | SLP(C) No. 19209/2025