New Delhi, The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought a response from the school education secretary in the Ministry of Education on a petition alleging non-compliance of its order to consider a plea seeking directions to regulate all institutions imparting education or religious instruction to children aged below 14.
A bench of Justices Dipankar Datta and Sheel Nagu issued notice to T K Anil Kumar, Secretary , Ministry of Education, and sought his reply in four weeks. The top court was hearing a contempt plea filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, who alleged that the secretary did not take any action on his representation. Hence, the State has heightened responsibility towards them. Upadhyay, in his plea, has claimed that he visited several districts along the Uttar Pradesh border, where numerous unregistered and unrecognised institutions were allegedly found operating. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
“Petitioner submits that children are the backbone of the nation’s growth and are also gullible and naive due to their tender age. “Petitioner is filing the Public Interest Litigation under Article 32 for registration, recognition, supervision, and monitoring of all institutions imparting secular or religious education to children up to 14 years in the spirit of Article 21A, 39, 45 and 51-A.
“Direct and declare that Article 30 is a specific reiteration of Article 19 and doesn’t confer any additional rights, benefits or privileges than the rights guaranteed to the citizens under Article 19,” the plea said. This is an issue of national security as young kids form the future of the nation, can be brainwashed or manipulated in the unregistered institution,” it said. He said unregistered and unrecognised institutions are proliferating across the border areas of the country without any effective oversight or regulatory mechanism.
Court Directs Representation for Education Regulation
On May 11, the Supreme Court instructed advocate Ashwani Dubey, representing petitioner Upadhyay, to submit a representation to the Union of India. The petition calls for measures to register, recognize, supervise, and monitor all institutions providing secular education or religious instruction to children up to 14 years old. This request is made in the context of Article 21A, alongside Articles 39, 45, and 51-A of the Indian Constitution. Additionally, the petition argues that Article 30 does not confer any extra rights to minorities beyond those guaranteed by Article 19.
