Delhi High Court directed state government to intervene and give its response on the petition of Advocate and BJP leader Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay challenging the disparities between the curricula for the CBSE, ICSE, and State Board.
A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Yashwant Varma set the matter for further hearing in a week, allowing the Delhi government to intervene.
According to Advocate Upadhyay, the difference in curriculum deprives students of equal educational opportunities in accordance with Articles 14-16 of the Constitution.
The petitioner claimed that a standard curriculum may be implemented by a “National Education Council,” which would have duties similar to those of the GST Council, while arguing that the “right to education” entailed the “right to equal education.”
The petitioner added that “Coaching Mafias” and “Book Mafias” are also opposed to “One Nation-One Syllabus” and that the “sad fact is that School Mafias don’t want One Nation-One Education Board.”
The petitioner blamed the alleged coaching and book mafias, who not only divided society into classes of EWS, BPL, MIG, HIG, and elite class but also went against the values of “socialism, secularism, fraternity, and unity of the nation” as enshrined in the Constitution, for the absence of a common education system up to the 12th standard.
Additionally, he argued that a common curriculum and syllabus in the mother tongue will not only uphold the principles of a common culture, eliminate disparities, and eradicate discriminatory values in interpersonal interactions, but will also foster virtues, improve quality of life, and elevate ideas, furthering the constitutional aim of a just society.
