India's top court halts rollback of act governing Muslim schools in populous state

By Ahmad Adil

NEW DELHI (AA) – India’s top court on Friday put on hold an order passed by a court that scrapped a 2004 act governing Muslim schools or madrassas in the most populous northern Uttar Pradesh state.

"The object and purpose of Madarasa Board is regulatory in nature and Allahabad High Court is not prima facie correct that establishment of Board will breach secularism…,” a three-judge bench of Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice Dhananjaya Yeshwant Chandrachud, said on Friday. “The impugned judgment shall remain stayed.”

The court, which will hear the matter again in June, also issued notice to the federal government and others on the plea against the high court order.

Following a petition filed by a lawyer, who had challenged the constitutional validity of the act, the Allahabad High Court in the Uttar Pradesh state, while declaring the state’s Board of Madarsa Education Act, 2004 as “unconstitutional,” in its order last month said: “We hold that the Madarsa Act, 2004, is violative of the principle of secularism, which is a part of the basic structure of the Constitution of India…”

The court then also ordered accommodating the madrassa students in regular schools.

Iftikhar Ahmed Javed, head of state-run Uttar Pradesh's Madrassa Education Board, had told Anadolu that the decision could impact 2.7 million students who are enrolled in 25,000 madrassas - both recognized and unrecognized - in the state.

Uttar Pradesh is the most populated province with a population of 204 million, and a Muslim community comprising 38 million.

Today’s court order has come ahead of the country's general elections. Seven-phased polls in the world’s largest democracy will begin on April 19.