The Allahabad
High Court Friday declared the Uttar Pradesh Board of Madarsa Education Act,
2004, "unconstitutional" and violative of the principle of
secularism, and asked the state government to accommodate current students in
the formal schooling system.
A division bench
comprising Justice Vivek Chaudhary and Justice Subhash Vidyarthi of the Lucknow
branch of the court declared the law ultra vires on a writ petition filed by a
person named Anshuman Singh Rathore.
Rathore had challenged the constitutionality of the
UP Madarsa Board as well as objected to the management of madarsa by the
Minority Welfare department, both by Union of India and the state government.