Guwahati: The Assam Repealing Act, 2020, which requires all provincialized (government-funded) madrassas in Assam to be turned into ordinary schools was maintained by the Gauhati high court on Friday.
According to a division bench led by Chief Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice Soumitra Saikia, the reforms brought about by the state’s legislative and administrative action are only for provincialised madrassas, which are government schools, and not for private or community schools.
A writ challenge challenging the Act’s legitimacy was also dismissed.
13 people filed a writ suit in the High Court in 2021 challenging the state government’s decision to convert state-funded madrassas into ordinary schools.
The hearing had ended on January 27 and the Court had reserved its decision, which was handed down on February 1.
The hearing had ended on January 27 and the Court had reserved its decision, which was handed down on Friday.
“The madrassas that are entirely sponsored by the state cannot impart religious instructions in the light of the requirement of Article 28(1) of the Indian Constitution,” the court said in its judgement.
It further stated that the professors of the provincialized madrassas’ services will not be dispensed with and that they will be taught to teach other topics if necessary.
According to National Media Reports, Assam Advocate General Devojit Saikia said, “The Assam Repealing Act of 2020, which abolished the Madrassa provincialisation acts of 1995, 2011, and 2018, has been maintained by the division bench of the honourable high court.”
The high court affirmed all subsequent notifications issued by the Assam government to transform madrassa institutions into ordinary educational institutions in the same decision.
“The court upheld the Act on the basis of Article 28(1) of the Constitution, which states that any educational institution that is entirely funded from the state budget or public monies cannot impart any religious teaching,” Saikia added.
“The Assam Repealing Act has no effect on privately or community-run madrassas; it solely affects the government’s 397 madrassas and four Arabic institutions,” he noted.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who had pushed the Assam Repeal Bill as the state education minister in 2020, tweeted, “Division Bench of Honble Gauhati high court in a landmark judgment delivered today upheld the Act of 2020 to repeal Madrassa Education Procincialisation Acts and also upheld all other notifications to convert 397 provincialised madrrassas to general educational institutions.”
Division Bench of Honble Gauhati High Court in a landmark judgment delivered today upheld the Act of 2020 to repeal Madrassa Education Procincialisation Acts and also upheld all other notifications to convert 397 provincialised madrrassas to general educational institutions.
— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) February 4, 2022
On December 30, 2020, the state Assembly enacted a bill that required all provincialized, government-funded madrassas to be converted into regular schools.
The Assam Madrassa Education (Provincialisation) Act, 1995, and the Assam Madrassa Education (Provincialisation of Employees and Re-Organisation of Madrassa Educational Institutions) Act, 2018, were both repealed. Another act dealing with the provincial nation of madrassas, passed by the state government in 2011, was abolished as a result of Bill’s passage.
Under the Assam Repealing Act, which was passed during the first BJP-led government in the state, the state government has pledged the status, salary, allowances, and service conditions of the teaching and non-teaching personnel of madrassas will not change.