High Court to examine validity of making Kannada compulsory for UG courses

NEP does not specify any mandatory language criteria for higher education courses: petitioners

The High Court of Karnataka on Thursday said that it would examine the constitutional validity of making Kannada a compulsory language for undergraduate courses in the State from the academic year 2021–22 on the pretext of implementing the National Education Policy (NEP)-2020.

A Division Bench comprising acting Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Sachin Shankar Magadum indicated that it would hear on Friday the arguments on behalf of the State Government on a PIL petition filed by Samskrita Bharati (Karnataka) Trust and other educational institutions.

The petitioners have questioned the legality of the Government Orders (GOs) issued on August 7, 2021, and September, 15, 2021, making Kannada one of the two languages to be compulsorily studied in degree courses irrespective of the languages they studied up to class XII, the state from which they hail from, and their mother tongue or the regional language.