The Supreme Court of India on Monday (May 11, 2026) left it to the government to consider whether schools which impart religious instruction should be brought under the ambit of constitutional provisions dealing with charitable or religious establishments, rather than being recognised as ‘secular or professional’ educational institutions.

A Bench headed by Justice Dipankar Datta said the issue was within the domain of the Ministry of Education, and the court need not intervene for now.

The petition filed by petitioner-advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay sought a direction to declare that “any institution which imparts religious instructions to promote any religion is covered under Article 26(a) and not under Articles 19(1)(g) or Article 30(1) of the Constitution”.

Article 26(a) is one of the ‘freedom-of-religion’ rights. It says that a religious denomination or ‘any section thereof’ would have the right to establish and maintain institutions for religious and charitable purposes. This, if done, would mean that schools imparting religious instruction would be subject to the restrictions of public order, health and morality.

The petition has argued that schools which impart religious instructions must not come under the right to profession or occupation enshrined in Article 19(1)(g), nor should they be brought within the ambit of the right given to minority communities to establish and administer “educational institutions”. The petition has clearly sought a dichotomy based on whether or not religious instruction was part of a school’s curriculum. It is not clear where schools imparting both secular and religious education, latter being left to the choice of the students, would fit.

Article 30(1) allows minority religious communities to establish educational institutions which impart secular and religious education. The Article reads as, “All minorities, whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice”.

The petition said the court must declare that ‘educational institutions of their choice’ in Article 30(1) should be interpreted as ‘secular/professional educational institutions of their choice’ and not ‘religious educational institutions of their choice’.

Mr. Upadhyay said the Centre must have a mechanism to “register, recognise, supervise and monitor institutions imparting education to children up to 14 years”. “This is an issue of national security as young kids form the future of the nation, and can be brainwashed/manipulated in unregistered institutions,” the petition said.

It also raised doubts if the quality of education could be ensured by unregistered and unrecognised institutions.

“The safety and security of children is paramount. It is the State’s onus to prevent trafficking of children by unregistered and unrecognised institutions at the threshold,” the petition said.