The education department in Uttar Pradesh has served notices to all madrasas saying that those running without recognition be immediately shut down or should pay a fine of Rs 10,000 every day. The move has been decried as illegal.
The notice says that madrasas, which are recognised must make the relevant documents available to the department within three days. Some of the madrasas have been told that inspections have revealed that they are running without recognition and are thus liable to a fine of up to one lakh rupees besides the everyday fine.
A reference is made in the notices to a provision under the Right to Education Act which reads, “No school, other than a school established, owned and controlled by the appropriate government or the local authority, shall after the commencement of this act, be established or function, without obtaining a certificate of recognition from such authority, by making an application in such form and manner, as may be prescribed”.
Madarsa managers and others have objected to the principle that madrasas fall under the Ministry of Minority Affairs and thus the education department has no role to play in governing them.
Iftiqar Ahmed Javed chairperson of the state’s Madarsa Shiksha Parishad said, “The state’s notification of 2004 and the rules of 2016 make it clear that no department other than that of minority welfare has the right to inspect or serve any kind of notices to madarsas. It is often brought to our notice that staff of the local education department conducts inspections of madrasas clearly violating the limits of the department’s power”.
Maulana Shahabuddin Razvi, who works extensively on the cause of Pasmanada Muslims (the most marginalised among the Muslims) said, “The government is deliberately not offering recognition to madrasas. Its decisions are illegal”.
There are over 25,000 madrasas in UP. More than two-thirds of these are recognised. The rest are only affiliated with the state’s Madarsa Board. In November 2022, a survey found that 8,500 madrasas, that were not recognised by the state government are operational. The UP Board of Madrasa Education was established in 2017 to check irregularities in the madrasas' functioning in the state.
