Karnataka High Court Permits Class X Student To Take Exams Without Opting For Kannada, Dismisses Appeal Against Single Bench Order

The Karnataka High Court on Thursday dismissed the Director of Karnataka Secondary Education Examination Board's appeal against an order of the Single judge bench that permitted a 10th standard student of Vidya Bharathi English School to take exams without opting for Kannada as one of the three languages.

The State government has introduced Kannada Language Learning Rules, 2017. All schools, be it CBSE or ICSE, have to mandatorily impart Kannada as one of the subjects.

A division bench of Chief Justice Prasanna B Varale and Justice M G S Kamal said, “for reasons to be separately recorded the appeal is dismissed.” I

It orally said, “ask the school to give admit card etc to the student today as the examination is scheduled to begin tomorrow.”

The single judge bench vide its order dated 27-02-2023 had allowed the petition filed by Ravishankar and directed the School to permit his son to continue his studies of Class X with Sanskrit, English and Hindi as first, second and third language and take up the examination scheduled to commence from March 31 by accepting the examination fee as a special case.

The court had said the case shall not act as a precedent in every case.

While the school had earlier granted permission to the son of the petitioner to pursue his studies in 10th Standard in Sanskrit, English and Hindi as 1st, 2nd and 3rd languages respectively, it later announced that students, who did not opt for Kannada language as one of the three languages, will not be allowed to take 10th Standard examination for the academic year 2022-23.

The petitioner had contended that his son all through his Elementary Schooling has never taken Kannada as a language and he does not know how to read or write the language. Since his basic education was elsewhere he did not study Kannada as one of the three languages, the court was told. Moreover, it is very difficult to learn Kannada as a language since he has not studied Kannada from his 1st Standard, he said. 

The bench had on going through the records and averments made by the parties had said: “Fact remains that petitioner’s son is not conversant and has not learnt or studied Kannada language from elementary level. Now, it would be cruel on the part of the respondent No.3 – School and State to force him to take Kannada language as one of the languages in the 10th Standard and expect him to answer the question paper without even being taught. It will spoil his entire life and career, if he is forced to take up Kannada language as one of the subjects in examination of 10th Standard, which is a crucial examination.”

Case Title: The Director (Exams) & Others And Ravishankar & ANR

Case No: WA 363/2023

Citation: 2023 LiveLaw (Kar) 131

Date of Order: 30-03-2023