The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Hearing in language policy case adjourned

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Hearing in language policy case adjourned

Staff Reporter

BANGALORE: The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday adjourned till next week a petition by a private educational institution in Hassan which had challenged the language policy of 1994, saying that it was illegal and unconstitutional.

When the matter came up, the State Government defended its policy on according primacy to Kannada language and cited a Supreme Court ruling holding that the "State can impose reasonable regulations on the institutions covering Article 30 for protecting the larger interest of the State and the nation."

In its affidavit filed in relation to a writ petition by Rosary Education Society of Hassan, which had challenged the language policy, the State said the Supreme Court had made these observations in a case relating to Marathi language.

It said some members of the Gujarati community, which is a minority in Maharashtra, had moved the Supreme Court against the policy formulated by the then State Government, making Marathi a compulsory subject.

Schools' plea

More than eighty primary schools in Karnataka moved the Karnataka High Court seeking a direction to restrain the Education Department from derecognising their institutions.

The schools said the Deputy Director of Public Instruction (DDPI) had issued a notice asking them why action should not be taken against them for violating the State policy on medium of instruction.

They said the DDPI had issued a latter, saying that their institutions would be derecognised as they had violated the undertaking they had given on the medium of instruction..

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