On Tuesday, the Supreme Court put aside the Allahabad High Court’s decision from March, which held the Uttar Pradesh Board of Madarsa Education Act of 2004 unconstitutional.
This was said by a bench headed by the CJI DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra. The Supreme Court underscored the need for the Uttar Pradesh government to ensure that the madrasas charge modern syllabi and questioned the possibility of transferring the students to other schools for an upgraded education.
The Apex court added that madrasas are not empowered to award any degree in higher education for any violations committed under the University Grants Commission Act. The bench also observed that the UP Board of Madarsa Education Act was enacted primarily to prescribe the course of study in the Madarsas to meet the academic requirements of the present era.
This came as the bench of the Supreme Court had reserved its judgment on eight different petitions that challenged the Allahabad High Court judgment, which stated that the Act is unconstitutional and violative of Section 47, Articles 14 and 25 of the Constitution that guarantees secularism. The High Court on March 22 had directed the UP government to assimilate the students of the madrasas into the formal education system, which had sparked fears about their education.
Earlier, in a related decision, the CJI-led bench had restrained the High Court order on April 5, benefiting about 1.7 million students of madrasas. Justice CJI Chandrachud said that there is nothing wrong with regulating madrasas since regulating madrasas is for the overall betterment of the nation since it protects the composite culture of the country and does not segment the minority educational systems.
In this regard, through responses to the questions posed by the Supreme Court, the Uttar Pradesh government upheld the Board of Madarsa Education Act, 2004, whereby the High Court erred in coming up with a generic ruling on the law’s unconstitutionality. This ruling will go a long way towards the regulation of madrasa education and the efforts currently underway to make madrasa a part of the educational system in India.
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