The Basic Education Department of Uttar Pradesh has issued a notice, imposing a daily fine of ₹10,000 on madrasas found operating without proper registration in the Muzaffarnagar district.
Officials have identified approximately 24,000 madrasas across Uttar Pradesh, of which 16,000 hold recognized status, while 8,000 remain unregistered and unacknowledged. Over a dozen unregistered madrasas in Muzaffarnagar district were served notices by the Basic Education Department, demanding the submission of relevant documents within three days of receiving the order. Failure to comply with the directive would result in the imposition of a ₹10,000 per day penalty for unregistered operation.
Mr. Shubham Shukla, the Muzaffarnagar Basic Shiksha Adhikari (BSA), said that the District Minority Department reported more than a hundred madrasas operating in violation of the registration and recognition norms.
Reacting to the notice, the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind, an organization representing Indian Muslims, labelled the Education Department’s order as “unlawful.”
Maulana Zakir Husain, the secretary of the Uttar Pradesh unit of Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind, criticized the move, saying, “The madrasas in the state are being harassed by serving them illegal notices only to target a particular community. The madrasas are providing free of cost education to the students; they will not be able to pay the fine of ₹10,000 per day.”
In parallel developments, it has been revealed that approximately 4,000 madrasas in the state are under scrutiny for allegedly receiving foreign funds. The state government has formed a three-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate these institutions, the majority of which are situated along the Indo-Nepal border. The official explained that the SIT’s primary task is to determine if the received funds were used for any illegal activities, including terrorism or forcible religious conversion.
