medium of instruction in the mother tongue

Name of the Case- 

Dr. Srinivas Guntupalli v. State of Andhra Pradesh & Ors.Case No.: WP No. 183/2019 Andhra Pradesh High Court.

Ratio of the Case-

 A division bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court led by Chief Justice JK Maheshwari has quashed the Government Orders seeking to implement English as a compulsory medium of instruction at primary level in all the Government Schools in the state.

"The decision of the Government, converting the medium of instruction from Telugu to English medium from Standards I to VI or I to VIII as the case may be, en-bloc, is against the National Policy, on Education Act, 1968 and various other reports, therefore, it cannot be accepted, hence, the impugned G.O, is deserves to be set aside," the high court has held.

Judgement

It thus held,"In view of the foregoing, the right to freedom of speech and expression is protected and conferred to a citizen, which includes the right to opt the medium of instruction in the mother tongue or in any of the languages specified in the schedule of the Constitution of India, subjected to restrictions enumerated in Clause (2) of Article 19. Therefore, it can be concluded that, option to choose medium of instruction in school education, is a right guaranteed under Article 19 (1) (a) of the Constitution subject to the exceptions carved out by Article 19 (2) of the Constitution."

The bench also held that the Government order is violative of Article 19(1)(g) of the Constitution in so far as it infringes the 'right to practice any profession freely' of linguistic minority institutions to impart education in their minority languages.

It was clarified that for the purposes of 19(1)(g) which is applicable to any profession, occupation, trade and business, running an educational institution is occupation under Article 19 (1) (g), as held by the Supreme Court in TMA Pai Foundation & Ors. v. State of Karnataka & Ors., AIR 2003 SC 355.