by Ajay KumarLucknow: The Yogi government has cracked down on madrasas being run in Uttar Pradesh without following regulations. Reports have surfaced that 513 madrasas recognized by the State Madrasa Education Board have been shut down. Following the government’s strict stance on fraudulent activities in non-recognized madrasas, the operators of these recognized madrasas have surrendered. They have submitted proposals to the Madrasa Education Board to relinquish their recognition. The proposal was approved in the meeting of the Uttar Pradesh Madrasa Education Board held on Tuesday, September 10. The Registrar of the Madrasa Education Board has been authorized to investigate the reasons behind the surrender of recognition and complete the necessary procedures.
It is worth noting that the UP Madrasa Education Act was established during Mulayam Singh’s government in 2004. Under this law, the UP Madrasa Education Board was formed. From the chairman to the members, only people from one specific religion, i.e., Muslims, were appointed to the board. A quota was even fixed for Shia and Sunni Muslims. The High Court deemed this unconstitutional, viewing it as a violation of Article 14, which guarantees the right to equality. Consequently, the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court declared the board unconstitutional, seeing it as against secularism. It should be noted that a lawyer from Lucknow, Anshuman Singh, filed a petition in the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court in October 2023. Following hearings, a division bench of the High Court recently passed this judgment. The court ruled that the Madrasa Board also violated Article 21 and Article 21A of the Constitution, which grants the right to free school education for children. However, UP madrasas were charging fees from students. Additionally, some madrasas were providing higher education, for which recognition from the UGC is required.
Notably, there are 16,513 recognized madrasas in Uttar Pradesh under the Madrasa Education Board. Apart from these, 8,449 madrasas were operating without recognition in the state. The government had ordered the closure of these unrecognized madrasas and instructed that children from these madrasas be enrolled in nearby primary schools. In protest against this order, representatives of Muslim organizations had met with the Chief Minister, registering their objections. Now, the reasons behind the surrender of 513 recognized madrasas are being investigated, and the Registrar has been authorized for further action. Since 2021, these madrasas have not received funds from the central government for modernization. Additionally, due to a lack of state funding, teachers’ salaries have also been impacted. The state government had also uncovered instances of fraudulent scholarship claims in several madrasas by showing inflated student numbers on paper. As a result, these struggling madrasas have proposed to surrender their recognition to the Madrasa Board.
