The Centre maintains that a Supreme Court judgment held AMU as a "central university".
The Aligarh Muslim University has appealed in Supreme Court, asking it not to permit the NDA government to withdraw an appeal, filed during the UPA years, to retain its minority status.
The appeal was filed after a verdict by the Allahabad High Court, recognising the university as a non-minority institution. In April, the NDA government said it would withdraw the appeal.
The government had submitted that the university was set up by a Central Act and in 1967, a five-judge Constitution bench of the Supreme Court had held it as a "central university" and not a minority institution.
But in 1981, an amendment was brought in to accord the university minority status, which was held as unconstitutional by the Allahabad High Court.
In its appeal to the Supreme Court, AMU said, "A decision taken at the governmental level will not be nullified by a change of government, by another political party assuming power, particularly when such a decision affects the interest of the nation as a whole."
The minority character of the university, the oldest Muslim University in the country, means a lot to all the Muslims, the affidavit further said.