Supreme Court: Allow German language in KVs for this academic session
A day after the Centre stood by its decision to scrap German as a third language in Kenridya Vidyalayas, the Supreme Court on Friday asked the Human Resource Development Ministry to consider continuing the European language for the present academic session.
A day after the Centre stood by its decision to scrap German as a third language in Kenridya Vidyalayas, the Supreme Court on Friday asked the Human Resource Development Ministry to consider continuing the European language for the present academic session.
"Why the hurry? Do it from the next session," the apex court told Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi. On Thursday, the central government had reiterated its position that Sanskrit would be the third language in place of German in Kendriya Vidyalayas from class 6 to 8 before the Supreme Court.
Rohatgi was seeking the Supreme Court's nod for filing an affidavit over the storm arising from its decision to replace German by Sanskrit in central schools all over the country - a move facing stiff resistance from the parents of the children who had opted for German.
On Thursday, Rohatgi mentioned the matter before the bench headed by Chief Justice H L Dattu seeking permission to file the affidavit. A bench headed by Justice Anil R Dave had last week issued notices to the central government and Kendriya Vidyalayas Sangthan on a plea by V S Ramanathan challenging the government's decision to replace German with Sanskrit in the academic mid-session.
German was introduced in Kendriya Vidyalayas following the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan and Goethe Institute of Max Mueller Bhavan. Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani has described the MoU as being violative of the constitution, saying that as per schedule 8 of the constitution, 22 languages were available which did not include German.
"The MoU signed by the Centre and Germany on introducing German as third language is illegal and we can't continue with it," Rohatgi told the Supreme Court on Friday.
The government decision had created an uproar including queries from the German government. with Chancellor Angela Merkel raising the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Australia earlier this month. The decision to scrap German in Kendriya Vidyalayas has affected over 70,000 students and also put in uncertainty the job of 700 teachers teaching the language in these schools.