HC admits plea challenging TN govt order on Tamil Learning Act

The Madras High Court today admitted a petition challenging a government order which was issued to implement the Tamil Nadu Tamil Learning Act, 2006.
Justice B Rajendran, who admitted the petition filed by The Association of Matriculation Higher Secondary Schools and their managements in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, posted the matter for further hearing on June 10.
The petitioners said the decision to implement Tamil Learning Act was violative of Article 14 and 19(1)(g) of Constitution and prayed for quashing of the order issued on February 10, this year.
According to them, the government has not framed any rules to implement the Act enacted in 2006 nor has it been implemented so far. The purpose of the Act is that every school shall teach its students any one of the subjects in Tamil as language, they said.

The petitioners submitted that the matriculation schools taught only English. The Director of Matriculation Schools issued a letter on February 10, this year, indicating that they were going to implement the Tamil Learning Act, 2006 from 10th Standard for the year 2015-16.
They submitted that most of their schools were not teaching Tamil under the head languages and if the Act was implemented, the students studying other than Tamil will have to abandon the course.
They said the issue has been recently decided by the Supreme Court in its May 6 judgment.
The apex court had ruled that the government cannot impose mother tongue on linguistic minority for imparting primary education as it affects the fundamental rights guaranteed under the Constitution.