Supreme Court Leaves Decision on Religious Schools to Government

The Supreme Court of India on Monday left it to the government to consider whether schools which impart religious instruction should be brought under the ambit of constitutional provisions dealing with charitable or religious establishments. A Bench headed by Justice Dipankar Datta said the issue was within the domain of the Ministry of Education, and the court need not intervene for now.

The petition filed by petitioner-advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay sought a direction to declare that any institution which imparts religious instructions to promote any religion is covered under Article 26(a) and not under Articles 19(1)(g) or Article 30(1) of the Constitution.

The petition argued that schools which impart religious instructions must not come under the right to profession or occupation enshrined in Article 19(1)(g), nor should they be brought within the ambit of the right given to minority communities to establish and administer educational institutions.

The government is expected to review the issue and consider the implications of classifying schools that teach religion as charitable or religious bodies, with the Ministry of Education likely to play a key role in the decision-making process. The court's decision is expected to have significant implications for the education sector, particularly for schools that impart religious instruction.