The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a petition which sought scrapping of theTamil Nadu Government’s decision to teach Tamil as a compulsory subject from Class I in all the schools in the state.In an appeal filed before the court, the Malayala Samajam and Nair Service Society of Kanyakumari district had contended that compulsory teaching of Tamil from the academic year 2006-07 in state-run educational institutions would undermine the Constitutional rights of minority-run educational institutions. However, a Bench headed by Justice Arijit Pasayat, while refraining from interfering in it, maintained that the legal provision brought in by the state Government does not, in any way, curtail the rights guaranteed to minority institutions under Article 29(1) and 30(1) of the Constitution.The Bench, also comprising Justice J M Panchal, found no infirmity with the high court’s decision which had scrutinised the TN Government Order (GO) dated June 12, 2006 and a subsequent Tamil Nadu Tamil Learning Act, 2006 making Tamil a “compulsory” language for schools in the state. Citing similar laws existing even in other states like Maharashtra and Karnataka, where their respective languages — Marathi and Kannada — are being taught as a compulsory subject in schools, the apex court dismissed the petitions challenging the law in TN.The organisations had challenged the Constitutional validity of the Act contending that it violated the fundamental rights of those who are linguistic minorities in TN and they cannot be forced to give up their rights of imparting education to their children in their mother tongue, namely Malayalam.The petitioners have also contended that the Act was contrary to the mandate of Article 350-A of the Constitution, which says that it shall be the endeavour of every state to provide adequate facilities for instructions in the mother tongue at the primary level of education.According to the decision by the state Government, it was decided to implement the order in a phased manner and in the first phase the order was implemented for primary students for the academic year 2006-07, and then from 2007-08 it will be made applicable up to Class X.
