Gujarat HC notice to state education dept on PIL against GR

Updated on: Saturday, December 10, 2011

The Gujarat High Court issued notices to the state education department on a public interest litigation (PIL), challenging government resolution (GR) of not providing class X and XII students with question papers in their language of instruction.
   
A pision bench of acting Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J B Pardiwala also issued notice to the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) and asked both the respondents to file their respective replies by December 15.
   
The PIL was filed by Samshad Pathan, convener of Jan Sangharsh Manch (JSM), a civil rights organisation.
   
The petition has sought directions for the education department to provide question papers in exams to students of class X and XII in their own language of instruction, be it Marathi, Urdu, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu or Oriya and they be permitted to write answer papers in the same languages.
   
The PIL has also sought quashing of the recent government resolution through which it was decided to provide question paper-sets only in Gujarati, Hindi and English to the students of class X studying in Marathi, Urdu, Sindhi (Arabic) and Sindhi (Devnagari) media secondary schools in the State.
    
The resolution had allowed students of class X to write answer papers in their respective language of instruction. However, students of class XII are required to write answer papers only in Gujarati, Hindi and English, irrespective of medium of instruction.
    
The petitioner has contended that interest of a large number of students studying in class X and XII with language of instruction being Urdu, Sindhi, Marathi, Tamil, Telugu and Oriya will be affected by the state government's resolution.
    
They have also contended that it has been the consistent practice of the Board (GSHSEB) since many years to provide question papers in the language in which students is studying.
   
"There is absolutely no rationale behind changing this age old practice," they added.
    
"Expecting the students to write answers in languages other than their medium of instruction would not only violate the provisions of the Constitution of India but would ruin the academic career of students," the PIL added.

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