HYDERABAD: Expressing concern at removal of courses of Persian, Arabic, Urdu and so on from the curriculum in various Universities, a division bench of the Hyderabad High Court on Monday directed the registrars of Andhra and Sri Venkateswara varsities to file counter affidavits giving details of number of admissions made into courses of Persian, Arabic, Urdu, Sanskrit, Telugu and English from 2015-16 academic year to till date, department-wise sanctioned posts of the faculty, those working on shifts and other related information.
“There is a need to create job opportunities by giving incentives to the students who have completed their course in the language courses, else the languages will become extinct. Instead of encouraging their children to pursue language courses, the parents want them to do engineering, medicine and other courses. Already Sanskrit and other languages have lost priority”, the bench observed.
The bench was passing this order in PILs filed separately by Syed Rahamathullah from Visakhapatnam and Shaik Khader Hussain from Chittoor seeking to declare the GO 30 issued on June 30, 2017 removing the courses of Persian, Arabic and Urdu from the curriculum of the above two universities, as illegal and violative of the UGC Act, 1956 and Article 29 and 14 of the Constitution of India.
The counsel appearing for the petitioners complained that the faculty meant for Arabic, Persian and Urdu languages in Andhra and Sri Venkateswara varsities were transferred to teach Hindi and Law courses.
The counsels for both the varsities told the court that there were no admissions in Urdu course in Andhra university since 2014.