Supreme Court Rejects Plea for National Education Policy Implementation in Tamil Nadu and Other States

Supreme Court's Ruling on National Education Policy

On Friday, the Supreme Court dismissed a public interest litigation that sought to compel Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and West Bengal to adopt the National Education Policy (NEP), which includes a three-language formula.

A bench comprising Justices JB Pardiwala and R Mahadevan stated that Article 32 of the Constitution permits the court to enforce fundamental rights but does not empower it to mandate states to follow a specific policy.

The court remarked, “It cannot directly compel a State to adopt a policy like the National Education Policy 2020.” However, it noted that intervention could occur if a state's actions regarding the NEP infringe upon fundamental rights, but this matter would not be addressed in the current writ petition.

The petition was initiated by lawyer GS Mani, who argued that the states in question were constitutionally required to implement the NEP, asserting that the policy aims to standardize education and that some states were politicizing the issue.

The NEP proposes that education up to Class 5, and ideally until Class 8, should be conducted in students' mother tongues. It also suggests the inclusion of classical languages like Sanskrit at all educational levels, with foreign languages introduced at the secondary level.

However, Tamil Nadu's Chief Minister MK Stalin criticized the policy as an attempt to impose Hindi and Sanskrit nationwide. Similarly, Kerala's Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan expressed concerns about the policy leading to the commercialization and centralization of education.

The West Bengal government has also opposed the NEP, claiming it undermines the federal structure of the country.