The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday asked the central government to specify whether a state government can have a statutory education board permitting religious education.
The Lucknow bench of justices Vivek Chaudhary and Subhash Vidyarthi passed the order on a writ petition filed by Anshuman Singh Rathore questioning the constitutionality of the U.P. Board of Madrasa Education Act 2004.
The court said that in its earlier reply, the central government did not give a clear response to this query.
The bench said that it expects the Union Ministry of Education as well as the Union Ministry of Minority Affairs to submit a written reply and the central government counsel, Sudhanshu Chauhan, will apprise the court about it on February 2.
The court would resume hearing on the matter on February 2.
The plea has questioned the constitutionality of the U.P. Board of Madrasa Education Act, 2004 and provisions of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act (Amendment) (RTE Act) 2012.
The petitioner contended that a state cannot be allowed to enact any law for providing religious education to a particular community and as such the constitution of Madrasa Board by the 2004 enactment is entirely unconstitutional and hence liable to be scrapped.
