Supreme Court(PTI)
The Supreme Court will deliver its verdict today (Tuesday) on Uttar Pradesh’s madrasa law. Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra will pronounce the verdict. The Allahabad High Court has declared the Uttar Pradesh Madrasa Education Board Act, 2004, unconstitutional. This decision was challenged in the High Court. The Supreme Court reserved the decision on October 22. A bench headed by the CJI reserved the decision.
Earlier on April 5, the Supreme Court stayed the High Court ruling. On March 22, the Allahabad High Court delivered its verdict on the Madrasa Act. The high court said the law violated the constitution and the principles of secularism.
Anjum Qadri, Arab Madaris Administrators Association (UP), Arab Madaris Arab Teachers Association (New Delhi), Arab Madaris New Bazaar Administrators Association and Arab Madaris Arab Kanpur Teachers Association filed a petition challenging the high court ruling Question. During the two-day hearing, the petitioners argued that the high court erred in holding that the UP Madrassa Act was intended to impart religious education instead of looking at its actual purpose.
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Intervenors against the bill, as well as the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), have emphasized that madrassa education ignores the promise of quality education enshrined in Article 21A of the Constitution. Although people have the freedom to receive religious education, it cannot be accepted as a substitute for mainstream education.
What was the High Court’s decision?
A bench of Justice Vivek Chaudhary and Justice Subhash Vidyarthi declared the law ultra vires and directed the Uttar Pradesh government to formulate a plan so that students currently studying in madrassas can Enter the formal education system. The decision comes months after the state government decided to launch a probe into Islamic educational institutions, setting up the SIT in October 2023 to investigate foreign funding of madrassas.
What did the UP government say in the Supreme Court?
Stating its stand before the Supreme Court, the Uttar Pradesh government said, “We have accepted the ruling of the Allahabad High Court and have decided not to file any application against the ruling.” It was also said on behalf of the government that as far as the validity of the Madrasa Bill is concerned, we argued in favor of the Bill in the Allahabad High Court and even today we take the same stand on the Madrasa Bill.
Lawyers for the UP government said that the decision to completely repeal the Madrasa Act is incorrect and only those provisions of the Act that are against fundamental rights should be reviewed and rejecting the Act outright is not appropriate. Lawyers said the Madrasa Act could definitely be amended, but scrapping it entirely would not be right.
What did the CGI say?
CJI DY Chandrachud said secularism means survive and let survive. He asked whether RTE applied specifically to religious schools? He said, can we say that the meaning of education in India cannot include religious education? It is basically a religious country.
CJI asks if regulating madrassas is in national interest. He said you can’t just destroy 700 years of history. The CJI said that even if we uphold the high court order, the parents of the children will still send them to madrasas.
