India’s Supreme Court has overturned a ban imposed on an upstate state on Islamic schools

NEW DELHI – India’s Supreme Court on Tuesday struck down an order banning Islamic schools in the country’s most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, providing respite to thousands of students and teachers.

In March, the Allahabad High Court struck down a 2004 law regulating schools, known as madrasas, saying it violated constitutional principles of secularism and ordering all students to be transferred to conventional schools.

By overturning its March order, the Supreme Court allowed 25,000 Muslim schools in the northern state to operate, but provided assistance to 2.7 million students and 10,000 teachers.

“The Act is in line with the positive obligation of the state to provide adequate education to children,” Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said in the court.

There was no immediate response from the state government.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which also rules in Uttar Pradesh, is converting hundreds of madrasas into conventional schools also in the northeastern state of Assam.

Muslims and human rights groups have accused some BJP members and associates of promoting anti-Islam hate speech and self-styled self-destruction, and of demolishing properties owned by Muslims.

Modi and the BJP deny the existence of religious discrimination in India, saying they work for the development of all communities. REUTERS