The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Language policy: State urged to move apex court

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Language policy: State urged to move apex court

Special Correspondent

Promulgating Ordinance to circumvent the High Court decision suggested

— Photo: Bhagya Prakash K.

Discussion: (From left) Former President of Kannada Sahitya Parishat Chandrashekhar Patil; Minister for Haj, Wakfs and Minority Welfare Mumtaz Ali Khan; writer Ko. Channabasappa; and former Minister B.K. Chandrashekar at a consultation meet organised by the Swabhimani Karnataka Vedike in Bangalore on Friday.

Bangalore: Legal experts, writers, educationists, politicians and Kannada activists have demanded that the State move the Supreme Court on the recent verdict of the Karnataka High Court on the language policy, which states that unaided schools cannot be compelled to teach in Kannada medium.

Taking part in a consultation meeting organised by the Swabhimani Karnataka Vedike here on Friday, some of them also suggested that the State promulgate an Ordinance to circumvent the High Court decision.

‘Defective reasoning’

Former Minister of State for Primary and Secondary Education B.K. Chandrashekar said it was “defective legal reasoning” to stretch the Right to Education to include right to choose the medium of instruction. He added that the court was making an “arbitrary distinction” between the government schools and unaided schools. He asked how the Government could be deemed not to have any control over private schools when the onus of giving recognition to them fell on it (Government).

Prof. Chandrashekar also said that the court had not taken into account the globally-accepted theory that children learn best when their early education is in their mother tongue.

Senior advocate Hemalatha Mahishi said that many provisions of the High Court ruling needed to be tested in the Supreme Court so that a uniform policy applicable to all States could emerge.

The High Court’s contention that running educational institutions should be read under Article 19 of the Constitution that deals with Right to Occupation, she said, needed to be tested at the Supreme Court. The court had also said that the right to learn English should be read under Article 20 on Right to Livelihood. This also, she added, needed further verification.

Ms. Mahishi pointed out that the State’s arguments had never been anti-English, but concerned the question as to when a second language should be introduced. Several provisions of the Juvenile Justice Act, she said, spoke of the rights of children as superseding those of parents, and it would be wrong to invoke choice of parents alone on the question of medium of instruction.

Mumtaz Ali Khan, who insisted that he was speaking in his capacity as an educationist and not as a Minister in the Government, said that the right to free and compulsory education should form the basis for arguing for a uniform policy on language.

Former Kannada Sahitya Parishat presidents Chandrashekhar Patil and G.S. Siddalingaiah; former Minister Lalita Naik; Congress spokesman V.S. Ugrappa; and Kodihalli Chandrashekhar of the Karnataka Rajya Raitha Sangha were among those present.

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