Uttar Pradesh Government implemented the UP Madrasa Board Education Act 2004. The state government also conducted a survey of madrasas in 2022.
The Supreme Court has given its verdict on UP Madrasa Education Board Act 2004. The court has upheld the validity of the Madrasa Act. With this, the decision of the High Court was stayed.
In fact, earlier on April 5, 2024, the Supreme Court stayed the decision of the Allahabad High Court declaring the Madrasa Act unconstitutional. A response was also sought from the Center and the UP government.
On October 22, the Supreme Court said that 17 lakh students will be affected by the High Court's decision. It is not appropriate to instruct students to transfer to another school. Religious education has never been a curse in the country. Secularism means live and let live.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra reserved its decision on October 22. Madrasa Azizia Ijajutul Uloom manager Anjum Qadri and others challenged the Allahabad High Court decision in the Supreme Court.
The High Court said that children of different religions cannot be discriminated against
On March 22, the Lucknow bench of the High Court delivered an 86-page verdict. In which it was said that children of different religions cannot be discriminated against. They cannot be given different types of education on the basis of religion. If this is done, it will be a violation of secularism. Along with this, the UP government was asked to create a scheme, so that students studying in madrasas can be included in the formal education system.
In 2012, a petition was filed against this law for the first time
The first petition against the Madrasa Act was filed in 2012 by Sirajul Haq, manager of Darul Uloom Wasiya Madrasa. Then in 2014 Lucknow's Minority Welfare Secretary Abdul Aziz and in 2019 Lucknow's Mohammad Javed applied.
After this, in 2020, Raijul Mustafa made two applications. Anshuman Singh Rathore applied in 2023. Matters were similar in all applications. Hence the High Court merged all the petitions.
Why was the survey conducted?
The UP government received inputs from social organizations and security agencies that madrassas were being run illegally. Based on that, the Uttar Pradesh Council and Minorities Minister decided to conduct a survey. After this a team of 5 members was formed in each district. In which the District Minority Officer and District School Inspector were involved.
After this, a survey of madrasas was conducted from 10 September 2022 to 15 November 2022. The deadline was later extended to November 30. The survey found around 8441 madrasas in the state which were not recognized. Moradabad was found to have the highest number of 550 madrasas of the faith. After this, 525 madrasas in Siddharthnagar, 500 in Bahraich and 350 madrasas in Basti were found unrecognized.
100 madrassas in the capital city of Lucknow have not been recognised. Apart from this, 90 madrasas in Prayagraj-Mau, 132 in Azamgarh and 85 madrasas in Kanpur were found to be accredited.
According to the government, currently there are 15 thousand 613 recognized madrasas in the state. In October 2023, the UP government constituted an SIT to investigate madrassas. SIT is probing foreign funding to madrassas.
What is the UP Madrasa Board Act?
The UP Madrasa Board Education Act 2004 was a law passed by the Government of Uttar Pradesh. Madrasahs were created to improve the education system in the state. Under this law, madrasas will receive recognition from the board if they meet minimum standards.
Objective of Madrasa Act
The objective of the UP Madrasa Board Education Act is to improve the quality of education in Madrasas and integrate them with the modern education system. Besides, it also aims to provide better employment opportunities to the students. However, this law is also being opposed. Some believe that this law prevents madrassas from imparting secular education.
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