Madurai: With the Central government categorically stating that they would not impose Hindi among students admitted in Jawahar Navodya Vidhayalayas (JNV) in Tamil Nadu, the Madurai bench of the Madras High Court on Monday urged the government to allow the opening of such schools in the state.
Issue NOC to Navodaya schools in 8 weeks: HC
The order passed by the division bench comprising Justices K K Sasidharan and G R Swaminathan would help clear the hurdles that prevented the starting of JNV for 30 years in Tamil Nadu.
“The impasse between the State and Central government was mainly due to a communication gap. Now that the Centre has clarified it will teach Tamil as compulsory subject from class VI to X, and as additional language in XI and XII, the government should take decision for issuing no objection certificate for opening the school within eight weeks and to provide necessary infrastructure facilities,” said Justice Sasidharan.
The state government had opposed the opening of the residential school all these years because it was against the two-language policy of the state government. According to the state language policy, Tamil and English should be taught compulsory up to class X.
When the case came up for hearing today, R Murugappan, Central government standing counsel submitted a letter of communication from HRD Ministry in the court clarifying they were not imposing Hindi in JNV. Even while 30 per cent of class nine children who migrated from one linguistic area to a school in another linguistic area for a year following the migration policy of JNV, they were not deprived of learning Tamil language, said the letter.
B Venkateswaran, principal, JNV, Puducherry who appeared on behalf of commissioner of Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti told the court that they were ready to start the residential school in a temporary building with the support of the state government and admit the students from next academic year. The JNV would conduct entrance examination for admission in January 2018, he said.
He also stated that the Central Government would sanction Rs 30 crore for constructing a permanent school building for each district and the state have to allocate 30 acres of land in every district.
Though the additional Advocate General B.Pugazhendhi appeared for the state government argued that the state cabinet has to decide on this, the court refused to accept it.
The court passed this order on a petition filed by one Mr. Jayakumar Thomas, secretary of Kumari Mahasabha, Nagercoil who sought to start JNV schools in Tamil Nadu to provide quality education to talented students in rural areas.
