Compulsory Tamil row lands in Madras High Court

 

The First Bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana, before which a petition filed by Organisation of Muslim Educational Institutions and Associations of Tamil Nadu came up for hearing,  recommended to government to expedite the issue as the examinations would be held in March 2016.

 

“It may be appropriate to have a committee presided over by a retired high court judge to quickly deal with the issue once again on account of the scheduled examination in March 2016,” the Bench said.

 

As per the law, Tamil (compulsory) was made as Part I. Based on this,  the Tamil Nadu Government had introduced Tamil as compulsory subject from standard I to IX in a phased manner. 

Challenging this several writ petitions were filed stating that the imposition of Tamil deprives a student of minority community to learn his or her mother tongue as well.

 

In a counter affidavit, the Director of School Education submitted that the law was upheld by the high court and Supreme Court.  The averment of the petitioners is misconceived as the Act is not for introducing the medium and it is only to make Tamil language a compulsory subject and not all the other subjects in Tamil. The Bench made the suggestion and posted the matter for further hearing on November 23.