This story is from September 24, 2021

Bengaluru: Class IV boy challenges law mandating Kannada language in all schools

The Karnataka high court on Thursday ordered notice to the state government and the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination, New Delhi, on a petition filed by a 10-year-old schoolboy from Bengaluru.
Bengaluru: Class IV boy challenges law mandating Kannada language in all schools
Picture for representational purpose only.
BENGALURU: The Karnataka high court on Thursday ordered notice to the state government and the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examination, New Delhi, on a petition filed by a 10-year-old schoolboy from Bengaluru.
Keertan Suresh, a Class IV student from Bishop Cotton Boys School, represented by his mother N Sujatha, a child rights activist, has requested the court to issue an order holding the Kannada Language Learning Act, 2015, unconstitutional, illegal and ultra vires as it does not exempt institutions affiliated to CBSE/ ICSE.

Under Section 3 of the Act, it is compulsory for all institutions in Karnataka to introduce Kannada language as a subject either as first or second language in Standard I from 2015-16, in Standard I and II in 2016-17 and extend it in phased manner up to Class X.
As per the education department’s order issued under the Kannada Language Learning Rules, 2017, the principal of the petitioner’s school informed students that Kannada will be taught as second language while other preferred languages will be continued as third language from the academic year 2020-2021 for grades 1, 2, 3, and 4.
The petitioner said compulsion to study a regional language as first or second language violates rights under Articles 14, 19 and 21 and places a burden on students.
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