BENGALURU: Four city-based organisations have moved the Karnataka High Court against the two orders issued by the State Government, mandating the learning of Kannada at the graduation level. Claiming that students from other states who lack the knowledge of Kannada are bound to fail as they cannot study the language at the graduation level, the petitioners claimed that the government orders would affect more than 1.30 lakh students and 4,000 language teachers in the state.
The petitioners -- Samskrita Bharati (Karnataka) Trust, Mahavidyalaya Samskrita Pradhyapaka Sangha, Hayagriva Trust and Vyoma Linguistic Labs Foundation -- have challenged the government orders dated August 7 and September 15, 2021, issued by the Department of Higher Education, seeking to implement the National Education Policy-2020 in Karnataka.
The August 7 order lays down guidelines for the implementation of the NEP for degree courses, while stating that two languages have to be chosen with other subjects, with one of them compulsorily being Kannada. Subsequently, another order issued on September 15, 2021, is to clarify how the previous order would be implemented.
They have contended that Kannada has been made a mandatory language, therefore, everyone has to opt for it irrespective of whether they have previously studied it in school or pre-university, or not. After hearing the arguments of the senior counsel representing the petitioners, a division bench of Acting Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum adjourned the matter to Friday, as the government advocate sought time.