On Tuesday, November 1, 2022, the Supreme Court issued notice on a special leave petition challenging a Gauhati High Court decision upholding a 2020 Assam Assembly law mandating the conversion of all state-run madrassas into general educational institutions. A division Bench of Justices Ajay Rastogi and CT Ravikumar observed that the High Court judgement would result in the petitioner institutions ceasing to be madrasas and preventing them from admitting students for the old courses for the current academic year.

Senior Advocate Sanjay Hegde, appearing on behalf of the petitioners, vehemently argued before the Bench that the High Court decision was erroneous inasmuch as it had equated provincialisation with nationalisation. Hegde said that "This is a matter dealing with the constitutional rights of minorities. The High Court assumes that the provincialisation of services is equivalent to the nationalisation of the institutions themselves. The High Court has held that the two substantially mean the same. These madrassas are institutions which were established by the minority community. There is no doubt about that. Thereafter, there was a process by which aid was given. If the institution ran into any deficit, the government would pay for it. The next step was the provincialisation of the services of the staff in the institutions. However, that provincialisation is restricted and it is a form of aid…But after equating the two and having proceeded on the basis that the institutions were already taken over, the Court held that there cannot be any more religious education as the institutions are maintained fully by the state."

On February 4, this year, the High Court dismissed the petitioners' claim that government-funded madrasas are minority institutions established and administered by the minority community. A High Court Division Bench led by Chief Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia (as he was then) upheld the Assam Repealing Act, 2020, which repealed the Assam Madrassa Education (Provincialisation) Act, 1995 and the Assam Madrassa Education (Provincialisation of Teachers' Services and Reorganisation of Educational Institutions) Act, 2018. The court also approved all other notifications issued by the state government to convert nearly 400 provincialised madrassas into regular schools under the supervision of the State Education Board.

The petitioners argued before the High Court that the Act's conversion of minority institutions to government institutions violated their fundamental rights under Articles 14, 21, 25, 26, 29, and 30 of the Constitution.

Case Details:-

 SLP (C) No. 18991/2021

Md. Imad Uddin Barbhuiya & Ors. v. State of Assam & Ors.