Can Tamil be made compulsory for students from Linguistic Minorities? Madras HC refers to larger bench

A three-judge bench of the Madras High Court will decide whether a Tamil Language paper can be made mandatory for the Class X Board Examinations in Tamil Nadu, particularly with respect to students from linguistic minorities..By way of background, the Tamil Nadu government passed the Tamil Nadu Compulsory Tamil Learning Act in 2006. By this Act, the Government made learning Tamil compulsory as a Part I language. Although the Act was enacted in 2006, it came into force only from 2014-2015 onwards..With the enforcement of the Act, representatives of students from linguistic minority schools made representations to the Government, requesting that they be allowed to write their Part I paper for the Class X Board exam in their mother tongue instead of Tamil..The Linguistic Minorities Forum of Tamil Nadu approached the Madras High Court after these representations failed to yield any satisfactory response..The petitioners prayed that the government be directed to grant exemption to students studying in Linguistic Minority Schools from writing their examination in Tamil for their Class X Board Examination..In view of their fast approaching exams at the time, the High Court had passed an interim order exempting students of linguistic minorities from the effect of the Act in 2016. This exemption was also granted in 2017..While granting a similar exemption for the students this year, the Bench of Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quddhose has now referred the root question to a larger bench. The order passed by the Court states,.“Considering the uncertainty caused by reason of conflicting decisions of two different Division Benches of this Court, it is imperative that the entire issue of whether Tamil can be made compulsory subject in Part 1, which will count towards total marks, percentage and ranking of the concerned candidates, is referred to a Larger Bench.”.It can be noted that there are at least two pertinent questions to be considered in the case. The first being whether a Tamil Language paper can be made compulsory at all with respect to students from linguistic minorities, in view of Article 30 of the Constitution..If this question is answered in the affirmative, the issue which then arises is, whether the marks obtained in Tamil should also count for the computation of the total marks and in determining the ranking/grading of the students. The Court has noted,.“Needless to mention that adding of the marks obtained in Tamil for computation of the total marks obtained in the Board Examination would prejudicially affect the prospects of the students of Non-Tamil minority communities seeking admission for further and/or higher studies in institutions of repute.”.These questions will now have to be determined by the larger bench. In the meanwhile, the Court has emphasised that the interim exemption order was made in special circumstances and cannot be treated as a precedent to claim exemption in the coming years. The order states,.“It is made clear that this interim order is passed in the special circumstances of the case considering, inter alia, the submission that there has been shortage of Tamil Teachers, and will not be treated as a precedent to claim exemption in coming years.”.Read Order below: