A public interest litigation petition filed before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday sought a direction to the Centre to bring out the Draft National Education Policy 2019 (NEP 2019) in all 22 languages listed under the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, in order to facilitate and conduct a meaningful consultation with citizens.
A Division Bench of Justices M. Sathyanarayanan and B. Pugalendhi ordered notice to the Ministry of Human Resources Development (MHRD) and sought a response. The petition pointed out that the draft policy was available in English and Hindi alone.
The petitioner, advocate G. Bhagavath Singh of Madurai, said that bringing out the draft in regional languages would enable greater participation from citizens.
The Centre, in the ‘Manual for grass root level consultations on New Education Policy,’ stated that the objective of the consultation process was to ensure that an inclusive, participatory and a holistic approach was undertaken.
The petitioner also sought an extension of the last date to provide suggestions.
