Noting that it is not “our business” to check what is being taught in schools, the Supreme Court has dismissed a petition for a direction to the government to make yoga education a compulsory part of the syllabus for Classes one to eight.
“We are nobody to say what is to be taught in schools,” a Bench, led by Justice Madan B. Lokur, orally observed.
The Bench denied any relief to petitioner and advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, saying it was for the government to take the call on such issues.
His petition had sought a direction to the government to frame a National Yoga Policy, saying that right to health was part of the right to lead a dignified life under Article 21 of the Constitution.
The petition, that cited the Ministry of Human Resource Development, the NCERT, the NCTE and the CBSE as parties, sought a direction to “provide standard textbooks of ‘Yoga and Health Education’ for students of class one to eight keeping in spirit various fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution such as right to life, education and equality.”
“The state has an obligation to provide health facilities to all the citizens, especially to children and adolescents. In a welfare state, it is obligation of the state to ensure the creation and sustaining of conditions congenial to good health,” the plea mentioned.
