Uttar Pradesh Madrasa Education Board and Muslim clerics have opposed the notices issued to unrecognised madrasas by the Basic Education department.

The Basic Education department, in its notice, has asked the unrecognised madrasas to either close down or shell out fines at the rate of Rs 10,000 per day.

UP Madrasa Education Board Chairman Iftikhar Javed said that it was beyond the jurisdiction of the Basic Education department to issue notice to madrasas as only the Minority Welfare department had administrative control over madrasas across the state.

He said the notices issued by the Basic Education department had created difficulties for madrasas in running the educational institution. He said the Minority Welfare department was set up in 1995 and since then this department had administrative control over madrasas. He said in 2004, the UP assembly had passed the UP Madrasa Education Board Act and rules for the recognition of Arabic and Persian madrasas were framed in 2016. He said since then the district madrasa education officers were also performing the duty of district minority welfare officers.

He said as per the law, no other department except the Minority Welfare department had the right to conduct inspection and issue notices to madrasas. He said the notices issued by the Basic Education department violated the UP Madrasa Education Board Act, 2004.

Uttar Pradesh’s Basic Education department has issued notices to over a dozen madrasas in Muzaffarnagar and some other districts that are operating without proper registration and has asked them to produce their documents.

The notice added that such madrasas, if found open, would face a fine of Rs 10,000 per day.

According to officials, there are about 24,000 madrasas in Uttar Pradesh, of which 16,000 are recognised and 8,000 unrecognised.

The madrasas which have been issued notices have been asked to produce their relevant documents within three days of receiving the notice or face action according to the rules.

“If the madrasas are found operating without recognition, they will be fined Rs 10,000 per day,” the notice reads.

Taking strong exception to the notices served to madrasas, the Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind, an organisation of Muslims clerics, called the Basic Education department’s order “unlawful”.

Maulana Zakir Husain, secretary of the Uttar Pradesh unit of Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind, said the madrasas in the state were “being harassed by serving them illegal notices only to target a particular community”.

“The madrasas are providing free education to students; they will not be able to pay the fine of Rs 10,000 per day,” Husain said.

Meanwhile, official sources said around 4,000 madrasas in the state are under the scanner for receiving foreign funds. The state government has set up a three-member special investigation team (SIT) to investigate 4,000 madrasas. Most of them run along the Indo-Nepal border and are allegedly receiving funds from abroad, the official said.

The SIT will examine if the money received by them is used in any illegal activities, such as terrorism or forcible religious conversion, the official added.