Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah on Monday (November 24, 2025) opposed any move to admit students on the basis of their faith and stated that “admissions should be based on merit and not religion”.
“When the J&K Assembly passed the Bill to establish Mata Vaishno Devi University in 1999, where was it written that boys and girls of one religion would be excluded? The Act clearly allows admissions based solely on merit. Now, when admission decisions follow merit, some people are unhappy,” Mr. Abdullah said.
Mr. Abdullah’s statement came two days after the BJP submitted a memorandum to J&K Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on scrapping this year’s MBBS list of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU), Katra. This year, 42 Muslim students qualified for the MBBS courses at the varsity out of a total of 50 seats. The BJP also sought L-G’s intervention to reserve all the seats for Hindus at the varsity because “it has come up over donations of Hindu devotees”.
However, Mr. Abdullah stated that the narrative being floated around admissions at the Mata Vaishno Devi University was an attempt to “move away from constitutional principles”.
“Making admission decisions based on religion could set a precedent affecting other public services,” Mr. Abdullah said. He said the law does not restrict admissions to any religious group.
