STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: A Division Bench (DB) of State High Court comprising Chief Justice (A) Ramalingam Sudhakar and Justice Sanjeev Kumar on Monday directed for strictly implementing government order regarding teaching Dogri and other regional languages in government and private schools across the State without any discrimination.
This significant order came in a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Vikram Malhotra, social activist and a politician seeking direction to State for implementing the Government Order No. 222 Edu of 2006 with regard to introduce Dogri Subject in all private as well as Government schools..
The Division Bench after hearing Advocate Tarun Sharma for the PIL whereas AAG Ravinder Gupta for the State observed that in response to various orders passed by this Court, an affidavit has been filed by the Under Secretary to the Government, School Education Department dated March 27, 2018, pursuant to orders of this Court dated December 4, 2017 and February 23, 2018. “It has been stated in the affidavit that in compliance to aforesaid order, the Secretary, J&K State Board of School Education by communiqué No.Edu/Legal/JMisc 498/2015 dated March 13, 2018 was informed to furnish the required information and in response to the same, by communication No. F-1 (Acad-C) Languages/B/18 dated March 13, 2018 of the State Board of School Education, it has been informed that from classes 1st to 5th, Kashmiri, Dogri, Punjabi, Gojri, Bodhi and Pahari languages are to be taught as one of the compulsory subject. In the above stated communication it has further been stated that insofar as students from 6th to 8th are concerned, the subjects Kashmiri, Dogri, Punjabi and Bodhi are to be taught as one of the compulsory subjects in such areas where such languages are spoken as mother tongue in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh provinces.
The DB after going through the communication, directed J&K BOSE to strictly implement Government Order No. 222-Edu of 2006 dated April 10, 2006 in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh, without any discrimination in all schools, as prescribed and in line with the communication of the Secretary J&K State Board of School Education referred to supra,- from the current academic session, if not already implemented. DB further directed that the direction as above to be compulsorily followed and implemented without fail.
Insofar as secondary school stage students are concerned, DB observed that it appears that Government has issued Order No. 333-Edu of 2017 dated June 19, 2017 followed by another Government Order No. 464-Edu of 2017 dated July 21, 2017 and by virtue of these two Government orders, languages. Kashmiri, Dogri, Punjabi and Bodhi have been made as one of the 6th compulsory subjects (Graded) at secondary school stage ( 9th and 10th students) where such languages are spoken as mother tongue from the academic session 2018-19.
DB further observed that it appears J&K Board of School Education has some reservation with regard to inclusion of the 6th compulsory subject in the curriculum, namely the languages as above, because it would go against the norms of the Central Board of School Education/ National Open Schools prescriptions. Considering the affidavit that CBSC/National Open School norms prescribe five compulsory subjects and not six, and Government and Education Board are seriously considering as to how to resolve this conflict, the DB observed that this issue is a policy decision that has to be resolved by the departments concerned.
DB observed that government and State Board shall take pragmatic and objective decision on the issue in the light of Government Order No. 333-Edu of 2017 and Government Order No. 464-Edu of 2017 on or before May 31, 2018. With these observations, the DB closed the PIL.
