Karnataka HC Allows Class X Student To Take Exams Without Choosing Kannada

The Karnataka High Court on Thursday dismissed the Director of Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board’s appeal against a single judge bench order allowing a Vidya Bharathi English School 10th standard student to take exams without selecting Kannada as one of the three languages.

Kannada Language Learning Rules, 2017 have been implemented by the state government. Kannada must be taught as one of the topics in all schools, whether CBSE or ICSE.

A division bench of Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale and Justice M G S Kamal ruled that “the appeal is dismissed for reasons to be separately recorded.”

It was stated, “Ask the school to provide the student with an admit card and other necessary documents today, as the examination is scheduled to begin tomorrow.”

The single judge bench vide its order dated 27-02-2023 had granted Ravishankar’s petition and ordered the School to allow his son to continue his studies in Class X with Sanskrit, English, and Hindi as first, second, and third languages and to take the examination scheduled to begin on March 31 by accepting the examination fee as a special case.

The court stated that the case would not serve as an example in all future cases.

While the school previously permitted the petitioner’s son to study in the 10th Standard in Sanskrit, English, and Hindi as 1st, 2nd, and 3rd languages, respectively, it later announced that students who did not choose Kannada as one of the three languages would not be permitted to take the 10th Standard examination for the academic year 2022-23.

The petitioner argued that his son had never studied Kannada as a language in elementary school and does not know how to read or write the language. According to the court, he did not learn Kannada as one of the three languages because his primary education was elsewhere. Furthermore, learning Kannada is extremely tough as a language since he has not studied Kannada from his 1st Standard, he stated.

“Fact remains that petitioner’s son is not conversant and has not learned or studied Kannada language from elementary level. Now, It would be cruel for respondent No.3 – School and State – to force him to study Kannada as one of the languages in the 10th Standard and expect him to answer the question paper without even being taught. If he is forced to study Kannada as one of the subjects in the 10th Standard examination, which is a crucial examination, it will ruin his entire life and career,” the bench stated after reviewing the documents and averments made by the parties.