THE Supreme Court on November 5, 2024 overturned the Allahabad High Court decision that struck down the Uttar Pradesh Board of Madarsa Education Act, 2004 as unconstitutional.
The high court had held that the Act violated Articles 14 (equality) and 21A and the principles of secularism and was therefore against the basic structure of the Indian Constitution.
The UP Madarsa Act, in essence, regulates madarsa education across Uttar Pradesh, in terms of upholding good standards of education, qualification of tutors and conducting examinations, etc.
At that point, there were about 13,000 madarsas, providing education to over 12 lakh students in the state. The high court judgment, in effect, had left these 12 lakh Muslim students without educational recognition and without any existing alternate infrastructure to absorb them into other schools. That was the colossal impact of the high court judgment.
