CHENNAI: Is the word Samuthiram Tamil? Though some scholars opined it to be Sanskrit, Madras High Court has ruled it otherwise. The issue came up before the Court during the hearing of a petition challenging a question in the examination paper of the Teachers Recruitment Board (TRB).
For the question in dispute - No.33 in ‘D’ series - candidates were to select the word which does not indicate the sea alone. The answers given were: A) Munneer B) Aazhi C) Paravai and D) Samuthiram. According to TRB, Aazhi is the correct one since it meant sea, ring and wheel.
But, the petitioner, P Easwari, who took the special test for persons with disability (PWD) candidates, contended that Samuthiram is also correct as it carried three different meanings such as ‘ocean’, ‘a big number followed by 14 zeros’ and ‘in abundance’. In support of her claim, she cited the Lexicon published by the University of Madras and Tamil dictionary known as Tamizh Agara Mudali and the one published by Saradha Publishers. Hence, the petitioner argued that she is entitled to one more mark.
Allowing the petition, Justice S Nagamuthu held that Samuthiram denoted sea besides having two other meanings, Justice S Nagamuthu directed the TRB to award one mark to candidates who marked it as the answer.
The Judge was not prepared to accept the opinion of some Tamil experts, who were present in court, that Samuthiram is not a Tamil word. The Judge pointed out that the question does not ask the candidates to find out whether Samuthiram is a Tamil word or not.
“Demonstrably, the Tamil word Samuthiram carried meanings of three different objects and therefore, applying the law laid down by the SC in Kanpur University’s case, for those candidates who have answered option (D) also, one mark should be awarded,” the Judge said.
He also directed TRB to revalue all the answer papers by making the above modification and publish the results within a week.