BANGALORE: The Karnataka High Court on Monday toughened its stand against schools that had violated the norms on the medium of instruction and said that it would not be a party to the fraud committed by managements of such schools on the parents and on the State.

The court said its sympathies were only with the children and their parents and not with the managements that had violated the undertaking they had given to the Government at the time of starting the institution.

Taking to task schools that had violated the undertaking, the court said they had no right to obtain permission to teach in one language and then teach in another. When informed that the Government had not taken any action so far and that it was only now that it was targeting the schools, it said if the Government did not take any action now, it would be blamed after five years just as its predecessors were blamed now.

When the matter came up, a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Cyriac Joseph and Justice B.S. Patil, which is hearing appeals by Karnataka Unaided Schools Management Association (KUSMA) and other schools, sought to know how many schools had violated the policy on the medium of instruction.

The Additional Government Advocate said in all 2,698 schools had been identified and of them notices for derecognition could be issued to only 2,215 schools. He said 483 schools had locked the gates and refused to let the officials enter the premises.

The counsel for KUSMA said the voluntary scheme drawn up by the Government on April 12 was not really voluntary and schools would be closed if they did not opt for it. Mr. Manohar said the scheme was only for schools started after 1994 that had violated the undertaking and started teaching students in English. He said the Government had extended till June 15 the time for schools to opt for the scheme. The appeals, he said, had been filed by the association, which claimed to have more than 1,100 institutions as its members. When told that the appeals were against an interim order of a single judge, the Bench said if there was any confusion created about theses orders they would remedy it saying that the scheme is voluntary and that schools may or may not opt for it.

The Bench posted the case for orders on Wednesday.

In a related case, the Bench told a school (not a member of KUSMA) that had appealed against a single judge order that it did not want the institution to continue violating the undertaking. It said the Government had come up with a safety valve for violators by announcing the scheme. "If you do not want to opt for it, face the consequence", the Bench said.

When the school insisted that it had not done anything wrong and that the interim order of a single judge was not correct, the Bench said if there was any ambiguity in the order it would clarify it.

It indicated that it would ask schools to make new admissions to first standard for teaching in Kannada medium and all the matters were posted for orders on Wednesday.

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