A post is being widely shared on social media claiming that Gauhati High Court has recently ordered complete closure of madrasas in Assam and has upheld decision of the Assam government of completely closing down madrasas in the state.
The post in Assamese reads: “জ্যৰ মাদ্ৰাছাসমূহ এতিয়াৰে পৰা সম্পূৰ্ণৰূপে বন্ধ হ’ব। শুকুৰবাৰে অসম চৰকাৰৰ মাদ্ৰাছা বন্ধৰ সিদ্ধান্তক চীল-মোহৰ মাৰে গুৱাহাটী উচ্চ ন্যায়ালয়ে। ২০২০ চনত অসম চৰকাৰে মাদ্ৰাছা শিক্ষা বন্ধৰ বাবে আনিছিল নতুন আইন। মাদ্ৰাছা-সংস্কৃত শিক্ষা বন্ধ কৰি সাধাৰণ শিক্ষানুষ্ঠানৰ শিক্ষালৈ পৰিৱৰ্তন কৰা লক্ষ্যৰে এই আইন গৃহীত কৰিছিল। এই আইন অনাৰ পাছতে ব্যাপক প্ৰতিক্ৰিয়াৰ সৃষ্টি হৈছিল ৰাজ্যত। চৰকাৰৰ এই আইনক প্ৰত্যাহ্বান জনাই উচ্চ ন্যায়ালয়ত ১৪ জন ব্যক্তিয়ে আৱেদন দাখিল কৰিছিল। কিন্তু অৱশেষত ন্যায়ালয়ে চৰকাৰী সিদ্ধান্তক মান্যতা প্ৰদান কৰি ৰাজ্যৰ মাদ্ৰাছা সমূহ সম্পূৰ্ণৰূপে বন্ধ কৰাৰ নিৰ্দেশ প্ৰদান কৰে। ন্যায়ালয়ৰ এই ৰায়ক আদৰণি জনাইছে মুখ্যমন্ত্ৰী হিমন্ত বিশ্ব শৰ্মাই।” (English translation as done by Google, “Madrassas in the state will be closed completely from now on. Guwahati High Court upholds Assam government’s decision to close Madrasa on Friday. In 2020, Assam government brought a new law to ban Madrasa education. This law was passed with the aim of banning Madrasa-Sanskrit education and converting it to general education. The law was introduced in the state after it was introduced. 14 people had filed their petition in the High Court challenging this law of the government. But finally the court upholds the government decision and ordered to close down all the madrassas in the state completely. Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sharma has welcomed this verdict of the court.”)
The link to the post can be seen here.
FACT CHECK
NewsMobile did a fact-check and found the claim to be misleading.
On searching with the keywords, ‘Guwahati High Court ruling on madrasas’ and we found a report by India Today published on February 5, 2022. The report suggested that the Guwahati High Court has upheld the state government’s decision of converting state-funded madrasas into general schools. The report further quoted Assam Advocate General, who said that ‘the High Court upheld Assam Repealing Act on the basis of Article 28(1) of the Constitution which states that any educational institution that receives all of its funding from the state budget or public monies is prohibited from imparting religious instruction.’
The same report by India Today also clarified that the Assam Repealing Act will only impact 397 madrassas and four Arabic colleges run by the government and will have no effect on private or community-run madrassas.
Another report by The New Indian Express also suggested that the decision will only impact state-aided Madrasas and will not impact community madrasas. The report read, “Advocate General Debajit Saikia had submitted to the court that the changes effected by the state government affected only the state-funded provincialised Madrasas. He had argued that the new law had no bearing on the functioning of the “Community Madrasas”, “Qawmi Madrasas” or “Maktabs”.”
Assam Chief Minister also tweeted to clarify that the decision is to convert state-funded Madrasas. He tweeted, “Division Bench of Hon’ble Gauhati High Court in a landmark judgment delivered today upheld the Act of 2020 to repeal Madrassa Education Procincialisation Acts and also upheld all other notifications to convert 397 provincialised madrrassas to general educational institutions.”
Hence, Gauhati High Court has not announced closure of all madrasas in Assam as claimed by social media posts. Instead, only provincialised madrasas will be converted into general schools. Thus, the viral post is misleading.
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