BENGALURU: Dismissing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) questioning the decision of the state government to introduce grading system for the third language in SSLC exams, the Karnataka High Court imposed a cost of Rs one lakh on the petitioners.
Chandana HN and Venkatesh S had filed the PIL submitting that the education minister Madhu Bangarappa had announced that Hindi subject is not compulsory and it will be considered only for grading purposes in the SSLC exams. They contended that the decision was one-sided and was taken without public consultation, and it may hamper the career prospects of students.
The divisional bench headed by chief justice Vibhu Bakhru opined that the PIL is really not a litigation in the interest of the public, but more an interest of seeking publicity. “We accordingly dismiss the present petition with a cost of Rs 50,000 payable to the Karnataka State Legal Services Authority within a period of two weeks,” the bench said.
The advocate representing the petitioners presented newspaper articles and said the minister had made a statement that Hindi would be dropped completely. Reviewing the articles, the court said, “This statement is completely erroneous and no such statement appeared in the newspaper. This establishes that the present petition is a motivated one maybe to seek publicity. Make that cost Rs 1 lakh,” the bench said, increasing the penalty.