SC orders notice on SLP against quashing Tamil medium GO

By Our Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI, FEB. 17. The Supreme Court has ordered notice on a special leave petition (SLP) filed by the Tamizhaga Tamil Asiriyar Kazhagam against a Full Bench judgment of the Madras High Court quashing a State Government order making Tamil or mother tongue medium of instruction in over 30,000 schools up to standard V.

A Bench comprising Mr. Justice K.T. Thomas and Mr. Justice Doraiswamy Raju directed that this petition be listed along with the SLPs filed by the Tamil Nadu Government and some others against the impugned judgment passed in April last.

Some of the questions raised in the SLP were: whether the High Court was right in distinguishing the decision of the apex court in 1994 in the case of `English Medium Students Parents Association vs State of Karnataka and others'; whether the court was right in holding that the impugned G.O. prescribing mother tongue or Tamil medium of instruction for children at the primary level was arbitrary, irrational or unreasonable.

The High Court had erred in holding that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights gave a fundamental right to a parent to choose the medium of instruction for his or her child when there was no such right, the SLP contended.

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Section  : National
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