An RTI application has revealed that a writ petition (No. 5329/2010) filed by one Jai Narayan Kumar challenging the establishment of an AMU centre at Kishanganj, currently pending in the Supreme Court, is the cause of the two year-long-and-continuing delay in the construction of the Kishanganj centre. The President of India, in his capacity as the Visitor of the university, asked the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development to seek the opinion of the law ministry about whether to proceed without waiting SC directions.

In accordance with the Presidential directive, the HRD ministry referred the matter to the law ministry. As there was no stay in the petition, the HRD ministry asked the law ministry if it is alright to release funds for the proposed centre on the lines of AMU centres already opened at Murshidabad in West Bengal and Mallapuram in Kerala. The law ministry replied that, “It will be advisable to await the outcome of special leave petition pending before the court since it was sub-judice.”

The SC had heard the petition on July 11, 2012 and advised the Petitioner to remove the University Chancellor as one of the Respondents and to send a compliance to the Court by August 16, 2012 for the subsequent hearing. On July 12, 2012 the MHRD wrote to the Law Ministry and asked to send a reply to the Prime Minister’s Office on the legal aspect of issue for delay in approval. The PMO had received the same suggestion from Law Ministry to put a hold on the issue till judgment comes from Supreme Court.