The Supreme Court has directed the Union Government and the States not to act till further orders on the communications issued by the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR), directing to withdraw the recognition of madarsas not compliant with the Right to Education Act 2009.
The Bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice JB Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra on Monday issued notice on a writ petition filed by the Islamic clerics’ body Jamiat Ulema-I-Hind challenging the NCPCR’s action.
On June 7, 2024, the NCPCR wrote to the Chief Secretary of the State of Uttar Pradesh directing that the recognition of madarsas not complying with the RTE Act be withdrawn.
After more than two weeks, the Commission wrote to the Secretary, Department of Education & Literacy, Ministry of Education, Government of India on June 25, seeking directions to all States/UTs to conduct inspections of the existing madarsas with the UDISE Code.
The Commission requested that the recognition and the UDISE Code of the madarsas not complying with the norms under the RTE Act, 2009, should be withdrawn with immediate effect.
It also requested the Union government not to extend the UDISE system to madarsas. Instead, a separate category of UDIE may be created to capture information about all madarsas, including the recognised, unrecognised and unmapped ones, it added.
On June 26, 2024, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary wrote to all District Collectors to conduct a ‘detailed investigation’ of all government-aided/recognised madarsas in the state that admitted non-Muslim children, and to ensure ‘immediate’ admission of all children enrolled in madarsas into schools.
A similar instruction was issued by the Government of Tripura on August 28, 2024.
On July 10, 2024, the Union Government wrote to all States/UTs to follow the NCPCR’s directives.
Jamiat Ulema-I-Hind moved the Apex Court against these directives, alleging an infringement of the right of religious minorities to impart education as per Article 30 of the Constitution.
Passing an interim order, the Apex Court directed that pending further orders, the communications issued by the NCPCR on June 7 and June 25, 2024, on June 26 by the Chief Secretary of Uttar Pradesh, on July 10 by the Secretary, Department of Education & Literacy, Ministry of Education, Government of India, and the communication dated August 28, 2024 issued by the Government of Tripura, shall not be acted upon.
Further allowing an oral request made by Jaising, the Bench granted liberty to the petitioner to implead all States/UTs in the plea, which was filed through AoR Fuzail Ahmed Ayyubi.