Seventeen of the institutions have been sealed, while the managements of three others have submitted written confirmations of closure, Parag Madhukar Dhakate, Special Secretary in the Minority Welfare Department, said.
The latest action covered five madrasas in Dehradun and Haldwani. In Dehradun, authorities sealed Madrasa Jamia-Tus-Salam Al-Islamia in Azad Colony. The managements of Madrasa Dar-e-Arqam in Azad Colony, Majra, and Madrasa Darul Uloom Rahimia submitted undertakings stating that they had stopped functioning.
Two institutions were also sealed in Haldwani in Nainital district. They included Madrasa Jamia Nooria Barkate Amina on Shani Bazaar Road in Gaujajali North and another unrecognised madrasa in Indira Nagar, Banbhoolpura.
Haldwani City Magistrate A B Vajpayee said the managements had been asked to produce documents establishing that the institutions were recognised. Sealing action followed after the required documents were not produced, he said.
Dhakate said the enforcement campaign would continue against madrasas that do not comply with the recognition requirements and educational standards prescribed by the state. The government has linked the action to a wider restructuring of the regulatory system for minority educational institutions.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has directed that educational institutions should not operate without meeting the applicable rules and recognition conditions. He has said the government will enforce standards intended to protect the quality of education offered to children.
The action comes after Uttarakhand replaced its statutory Madrasa Board with the Uttarakhand State Authority for Minority Education, or USAME, covering educational institutions run by the six minority communities: Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains and Parsis.
The government says the authority is intended to apply recognition standards across minority institutions while supporting modern education and compliance with prescribed academic norms.
The new framework is based on the Uttarakhand Minority Education Act, 2025, and the Uttarakhand Minority Educational Institutions Recognition Rules, 2026. These replaced the Uttarakhand Madrasa Education Board Act, 2016, and the earlier recognition rules governing non-government Arabic and Persian madrasas.
452 madrasas were registered with the state Madrasa Board. Uttarakhand authorities had also sealed more than 200 unrecognised madrasas during an earlier enforcement campaign, the state government said.
Recognition requirements can cover matters such as institutional documentation, prescribed educational standards and compliance with rules applied by the competent authority.
The constitutional position gives religious and linguistic minorities the right to establish and administer educational institutions of their choice under Article 30. That right, however, has been interpreted by the Supreme Court as compatible with reasonable state regulation aimed at maintaining educational standards.
In a 2024 judgment concerning the Uttar Pradesh Board of Madarsa Education Act, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutional validity of that state’s madrasa law after overturning an Allahabad High Court ruling. The court said states have regulatory powers to prescribe educational standards while respecting minority rights protected by the Constitution.
That judgment concerned Uttar Pradesh and did not rule on Uttarakhand’s new statutory framework. It nevertheless set out the broader principle that minority institutions may be subject to regulation designed to ensure educational competency, provided constitutional protections are maintained.
Uttarakhand’s current enforcement action is being undertaken under its own recognition regime. The government has said institutions that fulfil the prescribed requirements can function within the new structure, while those operating without recognition face administrative action.
The Dehradun cases illustrate the two routes adopted by authorities during the drive: sealing an institution where officials proceed with closure, or accepting a written undertaking from management confirming that operations have stopped.
In Haldwani, the administration said the two madrasas were given an opportunity to produce recognition papers before action was taken. Vajpayee said the institutions were sealed after the documents sought by officials were not submitted.
Officials have not announced any allegation in the latest action beyond non-compliance with recognition requirements and prescribed educational standards. The enforcement therefore centres on the institutions’ regulatory status rather than on the content of religious instruction.
