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The Supreme Court on Monday stayed the operation of the communications issued by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) recommending the closure of government-aided madrasas not compliant with the Right to Education (RTE) Act. It also ordered that the consequent directions by the Centre, Uttar Pradesh and Tripura, too, “shall not be acted upon”.
The interim order was passed by a three-judge bench presided by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud hearing a plea by Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, which contended that the NCPCR recommendations — issued on June 7 and June 25 this year — affected the rights of religious minorities under Article 30. Article 30 of the Constitution guarantees minorities the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice.
The Jamiat told the court that “not only does the pervasive State action violate the fundamental rights of the minorities running such madrasas, there is absolutely no authority in law to conduct such a blanket exercise as well, neither with the State nor the Union and certainly not with the NCPCR.”
“The present hounding of the madrasas by NCPCR, sourcing its authority from the RTE Act, and supported by the Union Ministry of Education, absolutely disregards the constitutional protections as upheld by this Hon’ble Court and seeks to arbitrarily interfere with the administration of madrasas in the country,” it said.
Section 1(5) of the RTE Act reads: “Nothing contained in this Act shall apply to Madrasas, Vedic Pathsalas and educational institutions primarily imparting religious instruction.”
In its June 7, 2024 letter, the NCPCR had asked the UP government to conduct a detailed investigation of all government-aided/recognised madrasas in the state which admit non-muslim children so that such children can be admitted to schools for formal education.
The panel’s June 25 letter asked the Secretary, Department of Education & Literacy, Union Ministry of Education, to direct all states and UTs to conduct inspections of the existing madrasas and to withdraw recognition of those not complying with the RTE Act.
Subsequently, on June 26, the UP Chief Secretary asked district magistrates to follow the directions in the June 7 NCPCR letter. The Tripura government issued similar instructions on August 28.
Following the NCPCR communications, the Centre, too, wrote to states and UTs on July 10, 2024, asking them to take suitable follow-up action.
The bench, also comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, allowed the request of Jamiat’s counsel, Senior Advocate Indira Jaising, to implead all the states and UTs as respondents in the petition.
In UP alone, there are 16,513 recognised madrasas catering to around 27 lakh students. Of these, 558 are fully funded by the state and the rest are government-aided private madrasas.
New Delhi: The SC Monday said that the provisions of the UP Board of Madarsa Education Act, in so far as they authorise the Board to confer degrees, may be in conflict with the UGC Act.
A three-judge bench presided by CJI D Y Chandrachud was hearing an appeal against an Allahabad HC judgment holding the 2004 Act unconstitutional. The hearing will continue Tuesday. —ENS
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