Supreme Court notice to Assam on SLP challenging Madrasa Act

The Supreme Court has issued notice to the Assam government on a petition that challenged the Gauhati high court verdict which upheld the law for conversion of state-run madrasas into general schools. The notice was issued on Tuesday by a bench of justices Ajay Rastogi and CT Ravikumar on a special leave petition (SLP) filed by 13 people. The state government had converted almost 400 madrasas into regular schools.

HC's division bench of chief justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and justice Soumitra Saikia had on February 4, 2020, said in its verdict that state-funded madrasas were not minority institutions. It upheld the constitu- tional validity of the Assam Repealing Act, 2020, while dismissing a writ petition filed by the 13 petitioners. "The claim of the petitioners that the madrasas are minority institutions and were established and administered by the minority has no foundation and is hence not acceptable," the HC bench had ruled.

The petitioners, who included Imad Uddin Barbhuiya, said in their SLP that HC erred in ruling that madrasas should not impart religious instruction as it was run by the government.