Madras High Court upholds legislation on Tamil as compulsory subject

The Madras High Court has upheld a State legislation that makes Tamil a compulsory subject from Class one to nine in all schools in Tamil Nadu from the 2006-07 academic year.

Chennai, Aug 24 : The Madras High Court has upheld a State legislation that makes Tamil a compulsory subject from Class one to nine in all schools in Tamil Nadu from the 2006-07 academic year.

While upholding the law, a Division Bench comprising of Chief Justice A P Shah and Justice D Murugesan, rejected petitions from the Kanyakumari District Malayala Samajam and others challenging the law.

"As education is directed at development of a child's personality, talent and ability, it must be inculcated through its mother tongue or home language even at the primary education itself," ruled the Bench.

The Bench said the legislation was not unreasonable or discriminatory and did not result in minority institutions losing their character.

The Tamil Nadu Tamil Learning Act 2006 was gazetted on June 12, 2006. While making compulsory Tamil as first language and English as second language, the Act provided for study of any other language as optional by students who had neither Tamil nor English as their mother tongue.

ANI