New Delhi : A plea has been moved in the Supreme Court challenging the Allahabad High Court decision declaring the Uttar Pradesh Board of Madarsa Education Act, 2004, as unconstitutional.
The petition has been filed on behalf of Anjum Kadari. The plea has been drawn by advocate Pradeep Kumar Yadav and filled through advocate Sanjeev Malhotra.
“The High Court has committed grave error by way of passing a judicial order to encroach the power of legislature and kept in abeyance law laid down by this court in catena of judgments especially a constitution bench of this court recently held in Anoop Baranwal vs Union of India, 2023, wherein this court has held that the direction shall hold good till a law is made by the legislation”, said the plea.
“The High Court failed to appreciate the true facts of the case that Article 14, 21-A and Article 29 (2) R/w Article 30 (1), is equal not in consonance, which is observed in the impugned order which committed grave injustice against society as a whole”, added the plea. The petitioners sought interim stay on order passed by the high court.
On March 22, a division bench of justice Vivek Chaudhary and justice Subhash Vidyarthi passed the order on a petition filed by one Anshuman Singh Rathore challenging the constitutional validity of the Act and certain provisions of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Amendment) Act, 2012.
The high court passed the judgment months after the state government decided to survey the Islamic education institutions in the state and also formed a special investigation team (SIT) in October 2023 to probe the funding of Madarsas from abroad. Madrasas refer to institutions where Islamic studies and other education may be pursued by students.
The high court had 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, violative of Articles 14, 21 and 21-A of the Constitution of India and violative of Section 22 of the University Grants Commission Act, 1956. Accordingly, the Madarsa Act, 2004 is declared unconstitutional”.
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