ANSWER: A

ANSWER: B

ANSWER: C

ANSWER: A

ANSWER: D

• The Allahabad High Court’s Lucknow bench has declared the UP Board of Madarsa Education Act of 2004 as
• The court ruled that the act violated the principle of secularism, as well as several articles of the Constitution, including articles 14, 21, and 21-A. Additionally, the court found that the act also contravened section 22 of the University Grants Commission Act of 1956.

KEY HIGHLIGHTS OF THE JUDGMENT

• A court in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh has directed the state government to provide regular school education to students enrolled in
• The court wants these students to be accommodated in primary, high school, and intermediate education boards of the state.
• The ruling came in response to a plea filed by a lawyer who had challenged the constitutionality of a law passed by the state government.
• The law allowed madrasas to provide education in Arabic, Urdu, Persian, Islamic studies, Tibb Logic, philosophy and other branches of learning without recognition by the state’s education boards.
• The court found the law to be unconstitutional as it violated the principle of secularism, which is a part of the basic structure of the Constitution, as well as articles 14, 15, and 21-A. The ruling will affect 16,513 madarsas in the state, of which 560 receive grants from the government. The court has asked the state government to create additional seats in regular schools for these students and establish new schools if necessary.
• The state government is yet to decide whether to comply with the verdict or challenge it in the Supreme court. A survey conducted by the state in 2022 found an additional 8,449 madarsas in the state to be running without recognition.
• Recently, a special investigative team recommended that the government close them down as their source of funds could not be established.

AGAINST THE SECULARISM

• To be recognized by the board, a madarsa must be established as a Muslim minority institution where every student studies Islam in every class to be promoted.
• Modern subjects are either not taught or are optional, and students are only permitted to choose one of the optional subjects.

ARTICLE 21, 21-A

• The court has found that the syllabus of class 10 and 12 in madarsas is inconsistent with the Right to Education of the Constitution. This is because students have limited options to study modern subjects such as maths and science.
• They are required to study compulsory subjects such as theology, Urdu, English, and Hindi. The court has noted that students up to class 10 cannot choose to study science, math, and social science
• The English taught to class 12 students is of the level of NCERT books of class 10, while the optional science subject taught to class 12 students is of the level of classes 8, 9, and 10. In state boards, science is divided among physics, chemistry, and biology.
• The court has concluded that the education under the Madarsa Act is not equivalent to the education being imparted to the students of other regular educational institutions recognized by the state primary and high school and intermediate boards.
• Hence, the education being imparted in madarsas is neither of ‘quality’ nor ‘universal’ in nature.

NOT WITH NORMS OF UGC ACT

• The law in question was found to be in conflict with the UGC Act. The court noted that previous rulings had established that higher education is a domain reserved for the Centre, and that states lack the authority to create laws in this field.
• However, the Act granted the board the right to prescribe textbooks and other instructional material even for courses like ‘alim,’ undergraduate, ‘kamil,’ post-graduate, ‘fazil,’ junior research, and other courses.

ANSWER: C

• For the first time in the Lok Sabha election’s history, the Election Commission of India (ECI) has allowed senior persons 85 years of age and more and people with disabilities to use the “vote-from-home”
• The ‘vote-from-home’ facility is solely reserved for the Persons with Disabilities (PwD) and senior citizens aged 85 and above.
• This decision would allow more than 85 lakh senior citizens and 4 lakh persons with disabilities to cast their votes by postal ballots.

HISTORY

• The facility was previously attempted during Assembly elections in select areas, allowing PwD, senior citizens and those affected by Covid-19 to vote from home.
• In the past 11 Assembly elections, the scheme has helped almost 3.30 lakh persons with disabilities and electors above 80 years.
• In the Karnataka Assembly Elections last year, nearly one lakh PwD and older electors, out of the total 18 lakhs, had used the house balloting postal poll approach.

HOW CAN THE FACILITY BE AVAILED?

• Key to the system is Form 12D, that’s a letter informing the Assistant Returning Officer (ARO) that the person might not be in a position to go to the polling station to vote.
• The form can be downloaded online from the ECI website or accumulated from the office of the representative district officer of a parliamentary constituency.
• Distribution of Form 12D has already started out in Tamil Nadu districts, as the State heads to the national polls on April 19.
• The form has to be filled and submitted within 5 days of notification of the polling date.

ANSWER: D

• The Finance Department is positive about the sliding growth rate beyond the 8% which is the NSO estimate that generally implies continued economic growth in the future, and higher analyst reports as well. Notwithstanding the high retail inflation within the target region of 2%-6%, core inflation has been showing indications of recovery.

ANSWER: C

• Sathiyan Gnanasekaran, a renowned Indian table tennis player, has made history by becoming the first Indian to win the men’s singles title at a WTT Feeder Series event in Beirut, Lebanon.
• Sathiyan, ranked 103rd in the world, defeated fellow Indian and world No. 74 Manav Vikas Thakkar in the final with a score of 3-1 (6-11, 11-7, 11-7, 11-4).
• In an all-Indian mixed double final, the pairing of Diya Chitale and Manush Shah emerged triumphant against Manav Thakkar and Archana Kamath.