“Supreme Court says no to mandatory religious instruction in State-Funded Minority institutions”, The Commune Mag, January 25, 2024:

“In a move with far-reaching implications for education in India, the Supreme Court has prohibited mandatory religious instruction in minority educational institutions, even those partially funded by the government. The judgement specifically discussed the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), a fully state-funded minority institution.

The bench, including CJI D Y Chandrachud and Justices Sanjiv Khanna, Surya Kant, J B Pardiwala, Dipankar Datta, Manoj Misra, and Satish Sharma, clarified that once the government recognises a minority institution, it cannot make religious teachings compulsory for its students. These remarks came in response to the 1951 Aligarh Muslim University Act 1920 amendment, which eliminated compulsory religious teaching for Muslim students.

The conditions arising from government grants apply to all educational institutions, regardless of minority or non-minority status, the bench said, as the Times of India reported.

Justice Khanna emphasised that minority institutions receiving any government grant, even as low as one per cent of their budget, can only offer religious teaching to students who volunteer for it, the report said…….”

Read the full article at Thecommunemag.com