The Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Monday directed the State government to permit the establishment of Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas. The court observed that the written submission made by the Government of India and the Navodaya Vidyalaya made it clear that there was no imposition of Hindi in the regional schools.
The public interest litigation petition for establishing Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas in Tamil Nadu for the benefit of rural students was filed by Kumari Mahasabha. Tamil Nadu is the only State where Navodaya Vidyalayas are yet to be established. The State government, in its counter, stated that under the Tamil Nadu Tamil Learning Act, 2006, it followed a two-language system of having Tamil and English as medium of instruction.
B. Venkateshwaran, Principal, Navodaya Vidyalaya, Puducherry, had stated in his submission before the court that there was no imposition of Hindi on students, and from Class 6 to Class 8, the medium of instruction was the regional language. From Class 9 to Class 10, Tamil would be a compulsory language and the medium of instruction would be Tamil. In Class 11 and class 12, Tamil was an optional language.
He added that the State had to allocate land for the school and funds for establishment and infrastructure would be provided by the Centre. A division bench of Justices K. K. Sasidharan and G. R. Swaminathan observed that the State was obliged to consider the establishment of the school under the right to education. The Bench directed the State to take a decision within eight weeks.
