Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, Sept 17: The Supreme Court on Thursday disagreed with the Tamil Nadu government’s blanket opposition over teaching Hindi in the state and its refusal to allot lands to set up “Navodaya Vidyalayas” in every district while cautioning that “individual States cannot act like individual countries” and advised it to change the “mindset” that Hindi cannot be taught on the soil of the State, cautioning that.
The oral observations from Justice B.V. Nagarathna came in a nearly hour-long hearing on the adoption of the Navodaya Vidyalaya Scheme in Tamil Nadu. ”Tamil Nadu must reconsider its mindset over teaching Hindi in schools across the state,” she observed while asking it to rethink opposing establishing Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas. The court observed that Hindi cannot be entirely excluded in Tamil Nadu and people should not be alienated from those sitting in Delhi.
The observation was made by a two-judge bench that also included Justice AG Masih, while hearing a matter over Tamil Nadu’s opposition to teaching Hindi in schools. During the hearing, Justice Nagarathna said the coastal state should change the “mindset” that Hindi will not be allowed to be taught on the soil of Tamil Nadu. Further, she stated that Tamil Nadu should hold talks with the Centre over the issue of language.
“We are saying in addition to all the good things you’re doing in your State, having something in addition will not bring down your standards. Coming from Delhi, will not lower the standards of Chennai. People in Chennai should not alienate Delhi and vice versa,” the court said.
The Supreme Court made the remarks while hearing a plea by the Tamil Nadu government that has challenged a Madras High Court’s directive, asking it to establish Navodaya Vidyalayas in each district of the state. The directive was issued after the high court observed that the Tamil Nadu Tamil Learning Act was not violated by the Navodaya Vidyalayas.
However, the Tamil Nadu protested the directive and moved to the Supreme Court after observing that setting up of Navodaya Vidyalayas to teach Hindi was not in consistent with the state’s two-language policy and asserted that education policies fall within the state’s domain. The Tamil Nadu government alleged setting up Navodaya schools across the state was an attempt to impose the Hindi language and make it predominant over Tamil.
The apex court gave Tamil Nadu three months to comply with its December 15, 2025, directive to identify requisite land for Navodaya Vidyalayas in each district. It said the direction would be subject to final orders passed later on. In the interregnum, the State and Central representatives were asked to discuss the policy of establishing Navodaya schools in Tamil Nadu. “Chennai should not alienate Delhi, and vice versa, too,” the bench said.
The Tamil Nadu government has opposed the scheme as “fundamentally incompatible” with the two-language policy followed by the State. The previous Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) government, in an affidavit filed in March this year, had said the Navodaya scheme, which was based on the three-language formula, deviated from the mandate of the Tamil Nadu Tamil Learning Act, 2006. The affidavit had alleged that the imposition of the scheme was only a “backdoor” ploy to make Hindi compulsory.
On Thursday, the now ruling Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) dispensation in the State equally objected to the scheme, saying the choice of language was a fundamental right. Senior advocate Jaideep Gupta and Tamil Nadu Additional Advocate General Haripriya Padmanabhan, for the State, said the scheme, which was only a policy, cannot be forced upon the State against its own policies and laws.
“This is not a ‘mindset’ issue. Every State has its own policies. They are entitled to have their own policies. If the Centre wanted uniform implementation of the Navodaya policy, it would have legislated,” Mr Gupta countered.
Justice Nagarathna replied that “we are ultimately a unitary form of government.” But Mr Gupta said he begged to differ with the court, saying “we are a federal government. This kind of unification is not the purport of the Constitution. Federalism is also part of the Basic Structure.” The judge responded that the governance structure in India was unitary in spirit and federal in structure.
Mr Gupta said ‘education’ was a subject in the Concurrent List. It was not necessary for the State to accept a policy of the Centre, he said. “Taking into account that this is a Concurrent List subject; taking into account every State has its own requirement; taking into account that language is a fundamental right in this country; taking into account every State has its own laws; taking all that into account, Navodaya is an optional policy… If the Supreme Court now issues a mandamus to the State to adopt that optional policy of the Centre, then My Lords, what you are doing is upsetting 75 years of decision-making by this court,” Mr Gupta submitted.
The court scheduled the next hearing on December 14, 2026. Tamil Nadu is the only state without a single Navodaya school. Its opposition is rooted in the apprehension that these schools were an attempt to impose the Hindi language.