A Public Interest Litigation has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking the implementation of the three-language formula, as per the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, in Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal.
Filed by Advocate GS Mani, the petition contended that all states of the country except Tamil Nadu, Kerala and West Bengal have adopted the three-language formula under the NEP, which was a major education reform aimed at enhancing learning quality for students across the country.
As per the plea, the policies formulated by the Union government, including the NEP, applied to all states. Therefore, it was the duty of all states to implement them.
It was the duty of the state government to implement such a policy, as well as a fundamental duty and right given in the Constitution, added the PIL.
It said all state governments in India were under a constitutional or legal obligation to implement NEP 2020 of the Central government and enter into an MoU for the implementation of the said policy, scheme or project. The refusal of any State to implement NEP 2020 or sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) may harm public welfare and violate educational & constitutional rights.
The petition further requested the Apex Court to enforce the policy in these states on the grounds that non-implementation of NEP 2020 may negatively impact the public interest and infringe on the citizens’ rights.
It alleged that the states in question refused to adopt the three-language policy due to political reasons and wrongly claimed that it was an attempt to impose Hindi.
The petitioner further contended that since free education was a fundamental right given by the Constitution, by refusing to accept this plan, the state government was denying the fundamental right of free education to the school children concerned.
While the Central government has given a thumbs up to the NEP, calling it a step towards promoting multilingualism, the State of Tamil Nadu has argued that it placed unfair pressure on non-Hindi-speaking states.
The Tamil Nadu government has accused the Centre of attempting to introduce Hindi indirectly through the policy.
The Tamil Nadu government has strongly opposed the NEP, particularly its three-language requirement, claiming that the Centre was attempting to impose, as well as introduce Hindi indirectly in the state through the policy.
The National Education Policy aimed to provide quality education to students from all sections of society. It said that all Indian languages should be taught free of cost to school children belonging to the poor, scheduled, tribes, backward and the most backward classes children.