Darul Uloom Deoband, the Islamic seminary at Saharanpur, has lodged a protest with the state government for being termed as illegal by the Minority Welfare department after the survey.
The clerics of Darul Uloom Deoband have come out in protest and demanded "rectification of the wrong message that has gone out".
The madrasa at Darul Uloom Deoband is not registered with the UP Madrasa Education Board. The state government, in September, had ordered a state-wide survey of the madrasas or schools preaching Islamic religious education. Over 6,000 private unrecognised and unregistered madrasas have been detected across the state.
Maulana Ashraf Usmani, spokesperson of the Deoband-based seminary, said, "Darul Uloom is registered under the Societies Registration Act, and both religious and modern education is imparted here as envisaged in the Constitution of India. There is no question of it being illegal."
UP Madarsa Education Board Chairman Iftikar Ahmad Javed said, “It is sad that this kind of message is being spread. Darul Uloom is an Islamic University that gives affiliation to over 4,000 madrasas all over the country. It is registered under the Societies Act, and it propagates religious philosophy and ideology to half the Muslims of the world called Deobandis. 'Unrecognised' is not synonymous with illegal."
Maulana Khalid Rashid Firangi Mahali, the imam of Aishbagh Eidgah Lucknow and executive member of All India Muslim Personal Law Board, said, "There is no question of illegality here. There are three ways a madrasa can work. Either it is registered under the Societies Act or Trust Act or works as per the mandate given to minorities under Article 30 of the Constitution of India. All three laws belong to India and not to the outside world. Darul Uloom Deoband imparts free education, boarding and lodging to the poor. All expenses are met from their own resources. It is not dependent on government agencies for funds."
District minority welfare officer in Saharanpur, Bharat Lal Gaur, had said, "Even Darul Uloom is not registered with UP Madarsa Board and hence it is not recognised, and so students of the seminary cannot avail government schemes and scholarships."
Gaur said that a total of 754 madrasas were registered in Saharanpur and the number of unrecognised madrasas in the district was 306.