Overview
- The Allahabad High Court on July 1 dismissed a petition seeking to stop the Uttar Pradesh Anti Terrorism Squad inquiry and allowed the ATS probe to continue as a non-coercive fact-finding exercise.
- State lawyers told the court the inquiry was launched after intelligence reported foreign remittances and large-scale construction at multiple madrasa sites without clear financial records.
- The petitioners, including the mosque management committee of Varanasi and the Teachers' Association Madaris Arabia, argued two earlier probes found no adverse material and said the new inquiry amounted to harassment.
- The court noted that conducting an inquiry is not coercive and explicitly gave the institutions the procedural right to submit replies to the Inquiry Committee for consideration.
- The probe covers about 4,000 unaided madrasas across Uttar Pradesh and remains at an investigatory stage with no court-authorized closures, a context reinforced by a January ruling limiting the District Minority Welfare Officer's powers over unrecognised madrasas.