Upholding the constitutional validity of the 2004 Uttar Pradesh madrassa education law, the Supreme Court on Tuesday said the positive concept of secularism required the state to treat minority institutions at par with secular ones and treat all equally irrespective of faith, belief.
A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra set aside the Allahabad High Court order that quashed the law on the ground that it was violative of the principle of secularism.
“Positive secularism allows the state to treat some persons differently to treat all persons equally. The concept of positive secularism finds consonance in the principle of substantive equality,” the bench said, adding that fundamental rights comprise both the negative and positive postulates and required the state to restrain its exercise of power and create conducive conditions for exercising these rights.