CHENNAI: Twenty Four students of Shree G K Jain Higher Secondary School at Royapuram have been exempted by the Madras High Court from writing the Tamil exam during Standard X public examinations for the 2017-18 academic year. The petitioners had submitted that they had all undergone their primary education in Hindi medium.
A Division Bench of Justices C T Selvam and M V Muralidharan granted the exemption, while allowing a PIL from minor C Priya Singh and 23 other students of the school on January 30.
The PIL sought to quash the records of the Chief Educational Officer at Saidapet dated November 7, 2017, and the consequential order of the District Educational Officer (Chennai-East) dated November 11, and consequently to grant exemption from the implementation of Tamil Nadu Compulsory Tamil Learning Act, 2006.
Submitting that they had all undergone their primary education in Hindi medium, the petitioners said there were no Tamil-teaching teachers in the school till 2015. Only in 2016 they were appointed. The school, being an aided one and with Tamil teachers appointed only in 2016, they should be granted the exemption.