New Delhi. The bench of Supreme Court Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Mishra is going to give an important decision on the UP Madarsa Board Act today. Allahabad High Court, while hearing a petition in this matter, on March 22, 2024, had declared the UP Madrasa Board Act 2004 as unconstitutional. Allahabad High Court had said in its decision that students studying in madrassas should be admitted in general schools. The madrassa operators had approached the Supreme Court against this decision of the Allahabad High Court.
In the Supreme Court, a bench of 3 judges headed by Chief Justice Chandrachud had stayed the decision of Allahabad High Court while conducting a detailed hearing in the UP Madrasa Act case. After this, after hearing the arguments of all the parties, the decision was reserved on October 22. In this matter, the UP government had also termed the decision of Allahabad High Court as wrong. It was said by the UP government that it is not in favor of repealing the UP Madrasa Board Act. The UP government had told the Supreme Court that it had also given the same representation in the Allahabad High Court that the court may review some parts of the Madrasa Act if it wishes. It would not be right to repeal the entire Act.
There are 16000 madrassas in UP. Of these, 13.57 lakh children take Islamic education. UP government gives grants to 560 madrassas. There are also 9500 teachers in madrassas which receive grants from the UP government. Madrasa Board was formed to look after the matters related to all the Madrasas of UP. If the UP government had implemented the decision of Allahabad High Court, the issue of admission of children in other schools could have deepened. At the same time, the crisis would deepen on the livelihood of thousands of people working in madrassas. Apart from this, there would be a possibility of politics getting heated up by implementing the decision of Allahabad High Court and dissolving the Madrasa Board.
