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Teachers’ body to seek relief for 37K Kamil, Fazil students; approach SC
Supreme Court halts Kamil and Fazil degrees for 37,000 UP madrasa students, leaving their future uncertain; teachers plan to seek relief.
The future of around 37,000 students enrolled in Kamil (graduate) and Fazil (postgraduate) courses in madrasas affiliated to UP Madrasa Board hangs in balance after the Supreme Court ordered the Board to discontinue awarding these degrees.
The Board had also stopped classes of both the courses leaving students in the dark.
Following this, a group of students approached the Apex Court.
However, now the ‘Teachers Association Madaris Arabia’ is all set to approach the Supreme Court seeking relief for the affected students.
There are around 16,460 madrasas recognised by the UP Madrasa Board in which around 28,000 students are studying in the first, second and third year of Kamil and about 9,000 students are studying in the first and second year of Fazil.
The general secretary of Teachers Association Madaris Arabia, Diwan Saheb Zaman said as the students who approached the Supreme Court could not present the case strongly, now the teachers will approach the Court by mid-March.
“Our main issue at the moment is Kamil and Fazil. After the Supreme Court’s decision, the classes of Kamil and Fazil were stopped, and the enrolled students were also stopped from appearing in the exams. Till date the government has not done anything for the future of these students,” said Zaman.
“We spoke several rounds with the representatives of the government and this issue was even raised in UP Legislative Council by teacher MLC Dhruv Kumar Tripathi but there was no concrete reply from the government on the issue. There were talks of affiliation with Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti Language University, but that too has not been done yet. Now we are preparing to approach the Supreme Court. Some students have already approached, but they could not present their case strongly as they did not have sufficient records. Hence, now our Assocation will be approaching the Supreme Court this month itself in this matter,” added Zaman.
Roadmap discussed, says minister
However, UP Minority Welfare Hajj and Waqf Minister Om Prakash Rajbhar has stated that a roadmap has been discussed and soon things will be finalised.
Speaking on the issue of affiliation with KMC Language University, Rajbhar said, “We have spoken to the vice chancellor of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti Language University and even held a meeting with higher education minister in this regard. We have also discussed a roadmap and soon things will be finalised in this regard.”
Through a letter dated January 16 issued to all the district minority welfare officers, the Registrar of UP Madrasa Board RP Singh issued directives to stop classes for Kamil and Fazil courses in the madrasas as per the order of the Supreme Court. New admissions in these courses were also banned. However, there was no clarity about the future of around 37,000 students who are already enrolled in these courses.
The background
On November 5, 2024 the Supreme Court set aside the Allahabad high court’s March judgment that declared the Uttar Pradesh Board of Madrasa Education Act 2004 unconstitutional.
Simultaneously, a bench comprising the then Chief Justice of India (CJI) DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra underlined the Uttar Pradesh government’s vital role in ensuring that educational standards in madrasas align with modern academic expectations, asking the state to relocate students to other schools. The Supreme Court also declared that madrasas can’t grant degrees of higher education since that’s violative of the University Grants Commission Act.
