"Constitution allows minorities to build their institutions": Congress' Rashid Alvi after SC upholds UP Madrasa act

New Delhi [India], November 5 : Congress leader Rashid Alvi on Tuesday lauded the Supreme Court's decision to uphold the constitutional validity of the 'Uttar Pradesh Board of Madrasa Education Act 2004', saying that the Constitution allows the minorities to build their Madarsas and university-like institutions and run them as per their will.
Earlier today, the apex court upheld the constitutional validity of the 'Uttar Pradesh Board of Madrasa Education Act 2004' and set aside the Allahabad High Court's March 22 verdict, which had struck down the Act.
"I welcome this verdict of the Supreme Court. The constitution allows the minorities to build their Madarsas and university-like institutions and run them as per their will--it's very clearly there in the constitution. Despite that, if some court or the government gives such a verdict that is against the constitution, that is unfortunate," Rashid Alvi told ANI.
A bench Chief Justice of India, DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, however, held the Madarsa Act unconstitutional to the extent it regulates higher education in relation to 'Fazil' and 'Kamil', which is in conflict with the UGC Act.
Reacting to the verdict, Congress MP Pramod Tiwari said, "The Madrasa Act was considered against the Constitution by the UP government, and the Allahabad High Court has rejected this... PM Modi and BJP talk about 'division and cut' based on religion; they should learn a lesson. A country can stay strong only when it is united."
The Madarsa Act regulates the standards of education in the State of Uttar Pradesh, said the bench while pronouncing the verdict on pleas against the judgement of the High Court.
The right of minorities to administer educational institutions is not absolute and the state can regulate the standards of such education, it added.
The Allahabad High Court had struck down the UP Madrasa Act for violating principles of secularism, a facet of the basic structure of the Constitution.
However, the BJP said that the government works as per the verdict of the courts, underscoring the BJP's efforts to modernise madrasas.
"Be it the decision of the Supreme Court, High Courts or any other Court, the government works as per the verdict... I want to say one thing: if there is someone who has modernised Madarsas, it's Yogi Adityanath... PM Modi has clearly said that on the one hand, it's the Quran and on the other hand, it should be the computer," BJP Leader Mohsin Raza said.