Kerala HC Defers Implementation of Order that Mandated Hindi as Third Language in Lakshadweep Schools

New Delhi: The Kerala high court has deferred the implementation of the order that mandated Hindi as the third language in schools of Lakshadweep.

Earlier, as a result of the government order, students could no longer choose Arabic/Mahal as the third language.

“..a language holds deep cultural signigicance, and any changes could have serious ramifications,” observed a bench of Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Basant Balaji on Monday (June 9), reported LiveLaw.

The court had asked the administration in Lakshadweep whether any study has been carried out into the need and impact of changing the languages, to which the counsel for the administration had replied in the negative.

After the counsel justified the order on the basis of the National Education Policy 2020, National Curriculum Framework for the Foundational Stage, 2022 and National Curriculum Framework for School Education, 2023, the high court said that the National Educational Policy, 2020 only says that of the three languages to be taught in school, two should be native to India.

The court also said that according to the Kerala Education Rules, 1959 and Kerala Curriculum Framework, Arabic is a prescribed subject of study.

The court made the remarks while heading a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Ajas Akbar, the president of the National Students Union of India (NSUI).

Akbar had said in the petition that the Lakshadweep administration was challenging the constitutional rights of a minority community by removing Mahal from the curriculum, despite the fact that Mahal was the exclusive language of the islanders of Minicoy Island.

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