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Order on medium of instruction in TN schools upheld

The Supreme Court Monday refused to stay a Madras high court judgment quashing a Tamil Nadu government order making Tamil or the mother tongue as the medium of instruction for all classes up to standard five in the state.

A division bench comprising Justices M J Rao and Doraiswamy Raju, however, issued notices on a special leave petition by the Tamil Nadu government, challenging the impugned judgment of April 20 quashing a government order dated November 19, 1999, affecting 30,000 schools in the state.

The notices issued to the Tamil Nadu Tamil and English Schools Association and others are returnable within six weeks.

The petition raised the following questions of law:

* Whether the high court was right in declaring the government order issued by the state government as illegal, in violation of the apex court ruling in the English Medium Students-Parents Association versus State of Karnataka, holding that up to the primary level, the mother tongue should be the medium of instruction.

* Whether the choice of medium of instruction at the primary level is a fundamental right, and

* Whether the high court could question the policy decision of the state government, which is based on the report of an expert committee.

UNI

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