Guwahati: A division bench of Gauhati High court on Monday admitted a writ petition against the amendment of Assam Venture Madrassa Educational Institutions (Provincialisation of Services) Act, 2011, by the Assam government in April this year and issued a notice to the state government seeking its reply within four weeks.

The petition, filed by venture school teacher Chandan Kumar Neog and others, said the court had declared the Assam Venture Educational Institutions (Provincialisation of Services) Act, 2011 constitutionally invalid in 2016 but had not struck down the Madrassa Act 2011 (it was not challenged in court). Yet, Dispur, while amending the other act, also amended the madrassa act.

"In the 2011 Act, there was a cushion period of two years for all the institutes to fulfil all requisite conditions and criteria enunciated in the act. This provision is missing in the amended act. This will have deleterious impact on most of the venture madrassas, which were otherwise eligible for provincialisation," Syed Burhanur Rehman, lawyer of the petitioners, said.