A court in India's most populous state has banned madrassas

A court in India 's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh has effectively banned Islamic schools. This decision applies to 2.7 million students and tens of thousands of teachers studying in 25,000 madrasas in the state . Indian Muslims are protesting against the court decision .

A court in India's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh has effectively banned Islamic schools.

The court order struck down a 2004 law regulating the status of madrassas in Uttar Pradesh as violating India's constitutional mandate of secularism. The court also demanded that all students from Islamic schools in the state be transferred to regular public schools, reports Yahoo!News.

The decision of the Allahabad High Court affects 2.7 million students and tens of thousands of teachers in 25,000 madrassas, said Iftikhar Ahmed Javed, chairman of the Uttar Pradesh madrassa board.

It is worth mentioning that one fifth of the 240 million people living in the state of Uttar Pradesh are Muslims.

"The authorities must ensure that children between the ages of 6 and 14 are not excluded from officially recognized institutions," wrote Justices Subhash Vidyarthi and Vivek Chaudhary in their judgment.