Allahabad High Court Declares UP Madrasa Education Act Unconstitutional

• 26 Mar 2024

Why in News?

Recently, the Allahabad High Court ruled that the Uttar Pradesh Board of Madarsa Education Act, 2004, is "unconstitutional" and violates the principle of secularism, and ordered the state government to accommodate current students in the formal schooling system.

Key Points

• The petitioner had challenged the constitutionality of the UP Madarsa Board as well as objected to the management of madarsa by the Minority Welfare Department, rather than the education department.
• The petitioner and his counsel submitted that the Madarsa Act violates the principles of secularism, which is the basic structure of the Constitution, fails to provide quality compulsory education up to the age of 14 years/Class-VIII as is mandatorily under Article 21-A; and fails to provide universal and quality school education to all the children studying in madarsas.
  • There are about 25,000 madrassas in UP of which 16,500 are recognised by the UP Madrassa Education Board. Of them, 560 madrassas receive grants from the government. Apart from this, there are 8,500 unrecognized madrassas in the state.
• In 2004, the Madarsa Education Act was enacted by the government. Similarly, the Sanskrit Education Council has also been formed in the state.
  • The objective of both the boards was to promote languages like Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit.
• According to the UP Madrasa Education Board Chairman the board will study the decision and decide the further course of action.

UP Madrasa Education Act, 2004

• The legislation was enacted in 2004 to streamline madrassa education, defining it as education in Arabic, Urdu, Persian, Islamic studies, Tibb (traditional medicine), philosophy and other specified branches.
• The board was then reconstituted, comprising a chairperson, director, principal of the state-run Oriental College in Rampur, a legislator each representing the Sunni and Shia sects, an NCERT representative, heads and teachers of Sunni and Shia institutions, and a science or Tibb teacher.

Article 21 (A)

• Right to Education declares that the State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children of the age of six to fourteen years.
• This provision makes only elementary education a Fundamental Right and not higher or professional education.
• This provision was added by the 86^th Constitutional Amendment Act of 2002.
• Before the 86^th amendment, the Constitution contained a provision for free and compulsory education for children under Article 45 in Part IV of the constitution.