New Delhi. In an important decision, the Supreme Court has ordered to maintain the Madrasa law of Uttar Pradesh. The Supreme Court has upheld the validity of the UP Board of Madrasa Education Act. This means that madrassas will continue to function in Uttar Pradesh and 17 lakh students studying in more than 16 thousand madrassas will not be sent to government schools. The Supreme Court gave this decision on Tuesday.
The Supreme Court rejected the decision of the Allahabad High Court, in which the Madrasa Act was declared unconstitutional. Supreme Court said- All the provisions of UP Madrasa Act do not violate the fundamental rights or the basic structure of the Constitution. However, the Supreme Court banned the provision of the Madarsa Act in which Madarsa had the right to decide the syllabus of PG and research. This means that now the Madrasa Board will not be able to decide the curriculum and books of higher education.
Earlier, on April 5, 2024, the Supreme Court had stayed the High Court’s decision declaring the Madarsa Act unconstitutional. The Supreme Court had also sought answers from the Central and Uttar Pradesh governments on this. This case was heard on 22 October 2024 in the bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud. At that time the Chief Justice had said – Secularism means live and let live. It is noteworthy that in 2004, Mulayam Singh Yadav’s government implemented the Madrasa law. A petition was filed against this for the first time in 2012. After that several petitions were filed. In all these petitions, there was a demand to repeal the law and it was said that religious education was creating discrimination in the society. After this the court had combined all the petitions together.