The Bharatiya Janata Party government in Uttarakhand on Sunday cleared a bill that will repeal the Uttarakhand Madrasa Education Board Act, 2016, and extend minority status to educational institutions run by the Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Christian and Parsi communities, reported PTI.

The Uttarakhand Minority Educational Institutions Bill, 2025, was cleared during a Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami. It will be introduced in the Assembly session starting Tuesday.

If cleared, the legislation will repeal the Uttarakhand Non-Government Arabic and Persian Madrasa Recognition Rules, 2019, which empower the madrasa board to set syllabus, conduct exams, inspect madrasas and grant recognition, The Indian Express reported.

In many parts of the Islamic world, a madrasa is an institution that imparts education – secular, or religious. In the Indian subcontinent, however, the word “madrasa” has evolved to refer solely to Islamic seminaries.

The bill also seeks to bring all minority-run institutions under a single regulatory authority, according to the Deccan Herald.

Approval from the authority will be mandatory to qualify as a minority educational institution. The authority will also be empowered to decide the curriculum and ensure that education is aligned with the Board of School Education.

Uttarakhand has 452 officially recognised, The Indian Express reported.

In March, the newspaper reported that the Uttarakhand government had sealed 136 allegedly illegal madrasas, claiming that they were not registered with the education department or madrasa board.

“Action against illegal madrasas, unauthorised shrines, and encroachments will continue,” The Indian Express quoted from a government communique. “Unregistered madrasas have been reported in towns bordering Uttar Pradesh, and such unauthorised institutions pose a serious security concern.”

Scroll’s reporting has shown that the state government appears to have selectively targeted Muslim places of worship on the pretext of removing encroachments from government land and public spaces.

On February 8 last year, the administration demolished a mosque and madrasa in Banbhoolpura, in the city of Haldwani in Nainital district, claiming that they were built illegally on government land – even as the matter was being adjudicated in the Uttarakhand High Court.

Six people were killed in a flare-up of violence that followed, and police cracked down on Muslim residents, detaining several men and barricading the areas in which they lived.

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