The Supreme Court has stepped into a brewing education crisis affecting tens of thousands of Madarsa students in Uttar Pradesh, asking the Centre and the state government to explain why traditional Islamic degrees—Fazil and Kamil—remain unrecognized despite students investing years into these courses.
At the heart of the case is a plea urging Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti Language University in Lucknow to be given the green light to conduct exams and grant degrees for these programs, which are taught in recognized Madarsas across the state. The petitioners—Teachers Association Madaris Arabia and Haji Diwan Saheb Zama—say that over 50,000 students are now stranded in academic limbo, with no formal recognition of their higher education efforts.
A bench led by Chief Justice BR Gavai, alongside Justices AG Masih and AS Chandurkar, issued notices to the Centre and the state and agreed to club this petition with an earlier, similar case already pending before the Court.
This deadlock stems from a prior ruling—Anjum Kadari v. Union of India—in which the Supreme Court found that the UP Madarsa Education Board had no legal mandate under the UGC Act to award degrees like Fazil (postgraduate) and Kamil (graduate). The result: an official letter from the Board in January 2025 suspended all such higher education programs, bringing years of learning to a sudden halt.
The petition warns of an impending educational catastrophe: students midway through Alim (senior secondary) and those on the cusp of completing their Fazil or Kamil degrees could soon find themselves holding nothing at all—not even recognition. Fundamental rights under Articles 14, 19(1)(g), 21, 28, and 30 of the Constitution are at risk, the plea states.
While the University Grants Commission (UGC) recognized these degrees back in 2014—provided they’re issued by a university—no official action has been taken to implement a system for their continued conferral. Despite a 2022 resolution from the University’s Executive Council and the formation of an expert committee, the absence of state authorization has left all such plans grounded.
The petition argues that this prolonged inaction not only betrays administrative lethargy but also violates the constitutional promise of equal treatment and minority educational rights. The proposed fix is simple: let Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti Language University take over responsibility for exams, results, and degrees—offering students a legitimate academic future.
The Court has now asked the concerned governments to respond. For the thousands of students staring into an academic void, that response can’t come soon enough.