Assn seeks to implead in plea challenging GO

The Tamil Nadu Students-Parents Welfare Association today requested the Madras High Court to implead itself in a writ petition which had challenged the government order (GO) that directed private schools to provide Tamil language teaching to all students.
It said that as a party in the proceeding, the association would oppose the petition in the larger interest of students and parents.
In June 2006, the state government passed the Tamil Nadu Tamil Learning Act which directed schools across the state, irrespective of their affiliation to any board, to teach Tamil compulsorily as the first language (Part I subject). English would be the second mandatory language (Part II subject) and languages like Hindi, Telugu, French or German could be taught as optional languages, the petition said.

Reviving the legislation, the GO, dated February 10, directed all unaided schools to ensure that their students were ready to write the Tamil paper during the annual examinations in the present academic year. They were asked to furnish a report in this regard.
Opposing the move in June this year, the Association of Matriculation Higher Secondary Schools and their managements in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry moved the court seeking a stay on its implementation.
The impleading petition today, however, argued for a common Tamil language. It said the Act had not been dormant but was "being continuously implemented by the authorities."

After the Act was notified on July 19, 2006, the directors of the respective boards had been issuing circulars to the inspectors and educational officers to monitor and enforce the implementation of the Act.
Further, despite having been challenged twice before the court, the Act had been held as constitutional. The Supreme Court too upheld the validity of the Act. As the aim of the Association was to create a common school system with mother tongue as the medium of instruction, it sought to implead itself and oppose the writ petition.