SC stays Allahabad HC order scrapping UP Madarsa Act

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday stayed the Allahabad high court order that declared the Uttar Pradesh Board of Madarsa Education Act, 2004, unconstitutional and violative of secularism.

A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud issued notice to Centre, and the Uttar Pradesh government on the plea challenging the High Court order.

"The object and purpose of Madarsa board is regulatory in nature and the Allahabad high court is not prima facie correct that establishment of board will breach secularism," the bench, also comprising Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, said. The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on March 22 directed the state government to accommodate students studying in madrasas in regular schools. The High Court had declared the law ultra vires on a writ petition filed by Anshuman Singh Rathore, a practising lawyer, challenging the constitutional validity of the act. A division bench of justices Vivek Chaudhary and Subhash Vidyarthi had passed the order saying the state has "no power to create a board for religious education or to establish a board for school education only for a particular religion and philosophy associated with it.”