STATE CAN’T IMPOSE MOTHER TONGUE IN SCHOOLS : SC Karnataka govt language policy quashed In the path-breaking rulling, the supreme court on Tuesday held that the state government does not have the right to impose the mother tongue of a medium of instruction in primary education. A five-judge constitution bench presided over by chief justice R M lodha ruled that the imposition of mother tongue affected the fundamental rights under Articles 19 (Free of speech and expression), 29 (Protection of interests of minorities) and 30 (Right of minorities to establish institution) of the constitution. The bench, also comprising justice A K Patnaik, S J Mukhopadhaya , Dipak Misra and F M I Kalifullah, gave the ruling while dealing with the Karnataka government’s controversial language policy of 1994. The state government had gone on appeal against the High court order which had struck down the language policy of 1994, Which mandated the medium of instruction in government recognized schools in class I to IV should be mother tongue or “Kannada”. The court said, though the experts may be uniform in their opinion that primary school children can learn better if they are taught in their mother tongue, the state cannot stipulate it as a condition for recognition as it would affect the rights of the minorities. It also noted that the constitution nowhere provided that the mother tongue is the language in which the child is comfortable with. “We are of the view that the right to freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(A) of the constitution includes the freedom of a child to be educated at the primary stage of school in a language of the choice of the child and state cannot impose controls on such a choice just because it thinks that it will be more beneficial for the child if he is taught in the mother tongue,” the bench said. “We, therefore, hold that a child or on his behalf the parent or guardian, has a right to freedom of choice with regard to the medium of instruction in which he would like to be educated at the primary stage in school,” the bench added. The SC had not stayed the High court quashing the 1994 notification, but the government was alleged to be slow in granting any recognition to English-medium schools. The constitution bench on Tuesday answered five questions referred to it by a division bench of the apex court for adjudication. Dealing with the rights of minorties, the bench in its 67 page judgement held that the State has no power under Article 350A of the constitution to compel the linguistic minorities to choose their mother tongue only as a medium of instruction in primary schools. It also held that the government-recognised schools will not include government-aided schools, but also unaided school which have been granted recognition. During the hearing , the Karnataka government defended its language policy saying that the basic knowledge can easily be acquired by a child through his mother tongue. It contended that the state government had the power to lay down a policy prescribing that the medium of instruction for children studying in standards I to IV in all government recognized schools in Karnataka will be kannada. The state government also pleaded that under the Right to Education Act, guaranteed under Article 21A , the state government could frame its policy and it was not open for any citizen to invoke any other fundamental right to claim that he should be educated in a medium of instruction of his choice
Posted on: Fri, 09 May 2014 05:26:23 +0000
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