Prayagraj (UP), Jul 3 The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday refused to interfere with the Uttar Pradesh Anti-Terrorist Squad's (ATS) probe into the funding of more than 4,000 unaided madrassas being run in the state.
A two-judge bench comprising Justices Neeraj Tiwari and Vivek Saran dismissed the petition moved by the Madrasa Management Committee and the Teachers' Association, Madrasas Arabia.
The petitioners had moved the court with a prayer to quash the order of December 9, 2025 by which the Uttar Pradesh government had initiated an inquiry into the funding of their institutions through the ATS.
It was submitted before the court that the earlier two inquiries were conducted on almost the same grounds and that nothing adverse was found against them. It was next submitted that the present probe was nothing but an attempt to harass the petitioners. Therefore, the inquiry was bad and liable to be set aside, the petition said.
On the other hand, Additional Advocate General Manish Goel submitted that the inquiry was not only against the petitioners but also against 4,000 institutions in the state based on inputs received from different sources.
It was further contended that the inquiry was not a coercive action and the petitioners had full liberty to submit a reply.
Considering the stance of the state government, the bench dismissed the petition with the observation, "Under such facts of the case, the court is of the firm view that conduct of inquiry cannot said to be coercive action against the petitioners. Therefore, Court is not inclined to entertain this petition at this stage."
The bench, however, clarified that the petitioners would be at liberty to submit a reply before the Inquiry Committee and in case any reply is submitted, the same shall be considered.
The probe against the madrassas was initiated following intelligence inputs alleging the receipt of foreign funding. The inputs flagged the construction of large-scale institutions across various locations without clear financial documentation or verifiable sources of income.
