SC: Last Opportunity to TN Govt to File Counter Challenging Compulsory Tamil subject in Class X

The Supreme Court in the case Linguistic Minorities Forum of Tamil Nadu v. State of Tamil Nadu And Ors observed and has granted final opportunity to the State of Tamil Nadu to file response in a petition challenging the order of the Madras High Court, wherein it is refused to quash the Government Order of 2014, which made Tamil paper compulsory in Class 10 State Board exam for all students.

The bench comprising of Justice S.K. Kaul and Justice A.S. Oka in the case observed while the matter was called out, the counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner organisation, Linguistic Minorities Forum of Tamil Nadu submitted that the State Government in the matter had circulated an adjournment letter. On perusing its orders, it has been noted by the bench that it had previously granted time to the State Government to file its counter affidavit.

Thus, the court granted last opportunity to the State of Tamil Nadu for filing its counter affidavit within 3 weeks and directed the matter to be next listed on 30th January, 2023. However, it has been exempted by the Madras High Court that the students belonging to linguistic minority schools from writing Tamil language papers in Class 10 State Board Examination for the academic year 2020-2022.

Further, it is appeared that the plea filed by the petitioner organisation was preferred before the Supreme Court once the exemption came to an end. Further, the plea submits that though the petitioner organisation had accepted that it would teach Tamil language to its students, an extreme step has been taken by the State Government from removing of all the minority languages from the list of compulsory languages.

The court emphasises that the languages which have been removed are the mother tongues of the linguistic minorities and the deprivation from learning the same is in teeth of their fundamental right which is envisaged by the Constitution of India. It is further being argued in the plea that the State Government cannot infringe fundamental rights of the students as per their whims and fancies. It has also been contended that the right to choose language at the primary and secondary level should be left to the student and their parents, otherwise it would be a blatant violation of their rights under Article 19, Article 21A, Article 29 and Article 30 of the Constitution of India.