The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its judgment on petitions against the Allahabad High Court order that had held the Uttar Pradesh law enacted in 2004 on the madrasas unconstitutional for infringing on the basic feature of secularism.
A bench headed by CJI D Y Chandrachud, of which Justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra were members, heard arguments by an assortment of lawyers appearing for the eight petitioners as well as Additional Solicitor General K M Natraj for the Uttar Pradesh government. The hearings went on for almost two days before the verdict was reserved.
The final arguments, which began on Monday, saw heavyweight lawyers such as Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Salman Khurshid, and Menaka Guruswamy appear for the petitioners. On Tuesday, the court resumed hearings and listened to senior advocates like Mukul Rohatgi, P Chidambaram, and Guru Krishna Kumar, who appeared for a spate of litigants.
The Allahabad High Court held on March 22 that the Act was “unconstitutional.” It ran counter to secular principles, asking the state government to gradually absorb madrasa students into the mainstream education system. At this, the bench headed by the CJI stayed the High Court order on April 5, thus bringing respite for some 1.7 million madrasa students. One such was an LPA filed by Anjum Kadari against the order of the High Court among the eight petitions heard.
