Allahabad High Court: Directed Registry To Place Matter Before Chief Justice/PIL Bench; Religious Education At Govt’s Expense

The Allahabad High Court in the case Azaj Ahmad And Others vs. National Commission For Protection Of Child Rights (Ncpcr) Thru. Its Chairperson And Others observed and has directed the Registry to register a Public Interest Litigation as the separate case on the issued of the government funding of religious education in institutions like madrasas and the matter is placed before the Chief Justice for appropriate direction or before the appropriate PIL Bench.
However, the said issued is being referred to the CJ/PIL Bench that weather the funding by the State Exchequer of institutions imparting religious instructions is violative of Article 14, Article 25, Article 26, Article 29 and Article 30 of the Constitution of India?
The bench comprising of Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Om Prakash Shukla in the case observed and has referred the issue mentioned above which was hitherto under consideration by a single judge of the High Court , to the PIL bench in view of the mandate of the verdict of Allahabad High Court in the case of Dinesh Kumar Singh @ Sonu.
It has also been held by the full bench of High Court and has held while dealing with a matter, if the single bench or the Division bench comes across any matter which includes a question in the public interest, which is not being connected with the matter before it, then, in that situation, the only option open to the Court in the case in order to direct the Registry to place the matter before the Chief Justice for appropriate directions or before the appropriate PIL Bench and, in any case, the court in the case should not convert such a writ petition into a PIL.
Therefore, the Division bench also agreed with the orders passed by the Single Judge wherein it ahs been decided to examine the question which pertains to the larger public interest and called upon the state and central government in order to file their responses in the matter. Therefore, the bench in the case agreed with the decision of the Single Judge to allow NCPCR, which being statutory commission incorporated primarily for overseeing the protection of children’s rights, as an intervenor in the matter.
The counsel, Senior Advocate VK Singh, assisted by Advocate MA Ausaf, Advocate Sankalp Narain, Advocate GS Maurya, Advocate Srivats Narain, Advocate Adil Hussain, Advocate BP Tiwari and Advocate Ayush Tandon appeared for the appellant.
The counsel, Advocate Swarupama Chaturvedi represented the NCPCR.
Advoctae RC Tiwari appeared for Union of India.