Bangalore, July 2: In a significant judgment on the language policy in the primary education system of Karnataka, a Division Bench of the High Court on Wednesday scrapped portions of a 1994 Government order making Kannada or a mother tongue the mandatory medium of education in all primary schools recognised by the Government.

The Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Cyriac Joseph and Justice N Kumar stated in their order that the policy could apply only to schools run or aided by the Government. The bench in its order stated that the “Government policy compelling children studying in other government recognized schools to have primary education only in the mother tongue or the regional language violates Article 19 (1)(g), 26 and 30(1) of the Constitution of India”.

The Bench said that Article 19 (1) (g), the right to carry on any occupation, provides the right to establish and administer an educational institution of one’s choice, while under Article 26 and Article 30 (1) every religious denomination has the right to establish and administer educational institutions.

The Government order of 1994 was stayed intermittently after it was challenged by the Karnataka Recognised Unaided Schools Association and the case had been pending in the High Court. Efforts had been made in recent times to de-recognise schools that had obtained government recognition after 1994 but were imparting education in English.

“Without English, communication is difficult in many parts of the country, inter state communication is difficult. In a multi-lingual country English is a link language” the High Court said in its order on Wednesday. The Court said that hundreds of parents want their children to have an education with English as the medium of instruction and that the Government must not oppose this but should leave the choice to parents and children.

In 2006, ahead of the Dussehra school break, the Primary Education Department under the JDS-BJP Government in Karnataka issued immediate closure notices to over 1000 schools for violating the 1994 rule. The rule had made it compulsory for schools to teach in the local language, Kannada or the ‘mother tongue’ from standard one to five. The closure notices were subsequently revoked under public pressure.

In June last year a Division Bench of the High Court had ordered schools that had started with only Kannada as the medium of instruction to pay fines to illegally switch to English. The move was in line with a Government scheme that ensured state recognition. The Court also gave these schools the option of switching to Kannada or the child’s mother tongue as the medium of instruction from class I to stay in line with the law.