Shiksha Bachao Andolan Samiti convenor Dina Nath Batra, who filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against the Civil Services Aptitude Test (CSAT) notification in October 2010, on Wednesday told The Hindu that he was satisfied with the government’s decision to >do away with the English component of this paper while calculating marks of the Civil Services Prelims due later this month.
Mr. Batra’s expression of satisfaction with the government that the decision came on a day when Congress member J. D. Seelam said in the Rajya Sabha that the government had only addressed what Mr. Batra wanted to do “that is, remove English and make it Hindi vs English.” Other issues pertaining to the mathematical and technical part have been ignored, he added, referring to the PIL.
It was on Mr. Batra’s PIL that the Delhi High Court on May 31, 2013, asked the Centre to set up a committee to look into the issues raised in the petition. As per the order, the committee in consultation with the Union Public Service Commission had to explain whether the English language in the Civil Services Examination is to be only qualifying, competitive or a mix of both.
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Mr. Batra’s contention was that English Language Comprehension Skills component of CSAT adversely affects Hindi and other regional language speaking candidates. This component carried 22.5 marks out of the 200 marks for CSAT and coupled with negative marking, this amounted to about 15 per cent of the total marks.
He also contended that the compulsory test in English Language Comprehension Skills of 22.5 marks is violative of Articles 14, 16 (1), 343 & 351 of the Constitution, and these questions would eliminate the students “not much familiar” with English.