The Supreme Court on Tuesday set aside the Allahabad High Court's March judgement declaring the 2004 Uttar Pradesh Board of Madarsa Education Act unconstitutional. While announcing the verdict, however, the apex court said that madarsas (Islamic seminaries) cannot grant degrees or higher education because doing so violates the rules under the University Grants Commission (UGC) Act.
The Supreme Court also underlined the importance of the state's role in ensuring that the madarsas' educational standards are met with modern academic expectations.
“The legislative scheme for the Act is to standardise level of education being prescribed in the madrasas. The Madrasa Act does not interfere with the day-to-day working of the madrasas. It is to protect the rights of minority in the State of Uttar Pradesh and is consistent with positive obligation of the State which ensures the students to pass out and earn a decent living,” ANI quoted SC's verdict.
The plea was heard by a bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) D Y Chandrachud and Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra. The bench had reserved the judgement on eight petitions, including the lead one filed by Anjum Kadari, against the high court verdict.
While declaring the UP Madarsa Act as constitutional, the bench held that the higher education and college degrees provided under the Madarsa Act are in violation of the UGC Act and called it unconstitutional, reported Live Law.
In reference to ‘Fazil’ and ‘Kamil’ degrees in madarsas, the SC bench declared the higher education degrees provided by the Muslim educational institutions as unconstitutional.
The decision will prevent the relocation of nearly 17 lakh madarsa students in the state after the High Court ordered their admission to the formal schooling system in March this year.
The Allahabad High Court had declared the UP Madarsa Act “unconstitutional” and violative of the principle of secularism on March 22. The court also directed the state government to shift madarsa students into the formal schooling system.
However, on April 5, the Supreme Court stayed the HC verdict scrapping the Uttar Pradesh Board of Uttar Pradesh Board of Madarsa Education Act, 2004. While announcing the stay, CJI Chandrachud had observed that secularism means to “live and let live”, reported PTI.
CJI Chandrachud had also noted that regulating madrasas was in the national interest as several hundred years of the nation's composite culture could not be wished away by creating silos for minorities, he had said.
During the hearing of the case in March, the bench said, “You cannot wish away several hundred years of history of this nation like this. Suppose we uphold the high court order and the parents of the children still send them to madarsas, then it will just be a silos without any legislative intervention mainstreaming is the answer to ghettoisation.”
The top court also noted that before scrapping the UP Madarsa Act, it is important to see through the broad sweep of the country, and the judiciary must preserve the nation's culture.
“Ultimately, we have to see it through the broad sweep of the country. Religious instructions are there not just for Muslims. It is there for Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, etc. The country ought to be a melting pot of cultures, civilisations, and religions. Let us preserve it that way. In fact, the answer to ghettoisation is to allow people to come to the mainstream and to allow them to come together. Otherwise, what we essentially would be doing is to keep them in silos,” PTI quoted the CJI's remark.
