The State government on Tuesday decided to file a review petition against the Supreme Court’s recent verdict on the medium of instruction in primary schools.
The Supreme Court, on May 6, quashed the Karnataka government’s 1994 language policy making mother tongue or Kannada the compulsory medium of instruction in primary schools.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who chaired a meeting of legal experts and officials on Tuesday, said the review petition would be filed by June 5 as it had to be done within a month after the verdict.
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He told presspersons after the meeting that the State had only two legal options. If the review petition was not considered, the government would file a curative petition, he said.
Mr. Siddaramaiah said he would also write to all Chief Ministers in the country seeking their support to ensure that mother tongue was made the medium of instruction in the country.
“Besides the review and curative petitions, the only other option is an amendment to the Constitution, making mother tongue the compulsory medium of instruction. We will appeal to the Centre for the Constitutional amendment,” he said.
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Other members who attended the meeting said the government was not keen on amending the Right to Education Act and enacting a separate legislation making Kannada the compulsory medium of instruction in primary schools. The plan was dropped as legal experts had raised doubts that such an amendment may not stand the legal scrutiny, if challenged in the apex court, one of the members said.
Law Minister T.B. Jayachandra said the government had not yet decided whether or not to change the members of the legal team that was representing Karnataka in the Supreme Court. Apart from Mr. Jayachandra, the former Lokayukta N. Santosh Hegde, Minister for State for Primary and Secondary Education Kimmane Ratnakar, Minister of State for Kannada and Culture Umashree and Advocate-General Ravivarma Kumar attended the meeting.