Karnataka: High Court to schools: Abide by govt's Kannada policy

[Harold Schiffman]

HC to schools: Abide by govt's Kannada policy
Wednesday, May 30, 2007 01:51:38 pm

   [image: /photo.cms?msid=2086077] In what will affect the future of
thousands of students in Karnataka, the state High Court in a vindication of
the government's stand has given an ultimatum to Kannada schools to switch
back to Kannada as a medium of instruction, and file an affidavit before
Friday (June 1) stating they will abide by the government's language policy.
The issue has become a bone of contention between the state government and
the Kannada schools. The state government wants all Kannada medium schools
using English as the medium of instruction to switch back to the Kannada
medium.

The latest court order affects 6,000 schools. The last time, around the
court had stayed the government's decision to change the medium of
instruction from English to Kannada in primary schools, and had even told
the schools to start admissions while informing the parents. With the latest
court ruling these schools have now decided to approach the Divisions Bench
to have the order revoked. But if their efforts fail, the Kannada schools
will have to bow down to the state and abide by the High Court's decision
with immediate effect, in the upcoming academic session itself. This could
adversely affect thousands of students, as many of the schools are
infrastructurally ill-equipped to make a sudden switch in language of
instruction. In this context they have termed the government's order
'unconstitutional', and observe that the High Court has not provided for the
consequences of this judgement.

Said Manjunath Swami Hiremath – counsel for the school management, "The
respective counsels appearing for the petitioners have made a submission to
the learned single judge that without consulting the respective managements
they cannot file an affidavit. But inspite of the submission, the court has
taken a u-turn and given a direction to file a personal affidavit for each
management, on or before June 1 stating that they are ready to impart
education in Kannada medium."

http://www.timesnow.tv/HC_to_schools_Abide_by_govts_Kannada_policy/articleshow/2086055.cms

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