HC order on exempting 10th students from writing Tamil paper

: The Madras High Court today clarifed that the exemption from writing part I Tamil language paper during class 10 board exams starting tomorrow, will apply to schools and students who have already applied for it.
It directed the School Education Department to decide as per law on fresh applications seeking exemption for students, whose mother tongue is not Tamil, from writing the Tamil language paper.
The bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Huluvadi G Ramesh and Justice M Sundar gave the directive on a batch of petitions which submitted that even though the petitioners-schools had applied for grant of exemption, the school education authorities have not complied with the February 27 Court order.

In its earlier interim order on a batch of petitions by Linguistic Minority institutions and individual students challenging the Act of Compulsory Tamil enacted in 2006, the Court had granted exemption to the students having mother tongue other than Tamil from writing Tamil language paper during the board exams.
The matter relates to the government rule making it compulsory for class X students to write part I Tamil language paper.
When the matter came up today, the bench said,"Considering the facts and circumstances of the case, especially the fact that the Tamil Exam is scheduled on March 8, we are of the considered opinion that necessary interim order will have to be passed in the present cases."

"Accordingly, as an interim measure, we direct the respondent authorities to exempt those students of the petitioners-schools who sought exemption from taking up Tamil exam for the year 2016-17 on reasonable grounds, either individually or through their respective schools," it said.
The bench then directed to post all the petitions in the usual course for further hearing.