CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has asked why Hindi can’t be taught as the third language in Tamil Nadu and what harm it would do.
The queries were raised by Acting Chief Justice (ACJ) Munishwar Nath Bhandari heading the first bench of the court on Tuesday when a petition seeking orders to the Tamil Nadu government to implement the New Education Policy, NEP, 2020, thereby teaching Hindi as a language in educational institutions, came up.
Citing examples of persons losing out on getting selected to jobs for want of knowledge of Hindi, he said this shouldn’t be a drawback for the people of Tamil Nadu.
“For taking a job in the state of Tamil Nadu, there is no difficulty but outside the state there would be difficulty,” he noted.
Recalling a brother judge’s experience of losing out for not knowing Hindi, the ACJ said he applied for a job in the Airports Authority of India. He was selected but could not be given the job because he was not conversant with Hindi and could not answer certain questions asked in Hindi.
The brother judge had also said this was the biggest drawback for the people of Tamil Nadu in getting jobs outside, the ACJ recalled.
When Advocate General (AG) R Shanmugasundaram explained that everyone is free to learn Hindi, he stated learning is different from being taught.
“If you give the option of three languages to the students, only then will they be in a position to opt for one or two or three. If everybody is opting for Tamil, (it is) fine. There is no difficulty. But they should be having the option to go for English or Hindi or any other language they require,” he stated.
Stressing that his views should not be viewed from any other angle, the ACJ said the option should be given for the betterment of the people of Tamil Nadu.
When the AG said the state is following two language policy and not three language policy, he questioned, “What is the harm if you follow the three language policy (with Hindi).”
The AG replied that it would overburden the students.
“Tamil and English are already there. I think adding a third language (Hindi) would not be harmful,” the ACJ said.
Admitting the petition filed by Arjunan Elayaraja of Cuddalore, the bench gave four weeks time for filing the counter-affidavit even as the AG sought eight weeks.