The Supreme Court on Tuesday issued notice to the School Education Secretary in the Union Ministry of Education on a petition alleging non-compliance of its order to consider a plea seeking directions to
Monitor all institutions imparting secular education or religious instruction to children aged below 14.
A Bench of Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Sheel Nagu asked the Secretary (Department of School Education and Literacy) in the Ministry of Education to respond in four weeks to a contempt petition filed by advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, who alleged that the secretary did not take any action on his representation.
As Upadhyay said it involved a constitutional issue, the Bench made it clear that it will only consider compliance with its order.
“This is contempt. In contempt, we will not consider any constitutional issues. We will only ensure our order is complied with,” it said.
On May 11, the Supreme Court had directed Upadhyay to make a representation to the Centre with his plea seeking directions to “take appropriate steps to register, recognise, supervise and monitor all institutions imparting secular education or religious instructions to children up to the age of 14 years in the spirit of Article 21A (Right to Education) read with Article 39(f), 45 and 51-A(k)”.
Upadhyay had contended that Article 30 does not grant any special or additional rights to minorities beyond what is already guaranteed under Article 19(1)(g) (right to practise any profession, occupation, trade, or business).
He had alleged that unregistered and unrecognised institutions were proliferating across the border areas of the country without any effective oversight or regulatory mechanism.
“Direct and declare that Article 30 is a specific reiteration of Article 19(1)(g) and doesn’t confer any additional rights, benefits or privileges than the rights guaranteed to the citizens under Article 19(1)(g),” he submitted in his petition.
“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(f), 45 and 51-A(k).
“Petitioner submits that children are the backbone of the nation’s growth and are also gullible and naive due to their tender age. Hence, the State has heightened responsibility towards them. This is an issue of national security as young kids (who) form the future of the nation, can be brainwashed or manipulated in the unregistered institution,” it said.
