BANGALORE: The Karnataka High Court on Tuesday directed the Karnataka State Unaided Schools Management Association (KUSMA) to file an affidavit on the medium of instruction in which they were imparting education to students from the first to fifth standard.

The court passed this order after the association and several schools had filed petitions challenging the State's language policy.

The association said it had not violated any undertaking it had given to the State Government on the medium of instruction in which it was supposed to teach. It accused the State of harassing the schools.

It said although the High Court had reserved judgment on the language policy, the State had unilaterally issued a Government order (GO) asking primary schools to teach in Kannada. The GO had said that action would be taken against those schools that were found teaching in English.

The State had then formulated a scheme under which schools that were found to have violated the norms on the medium of instruction could escape derecognition by paying penalty.

It said although the scheme was voluntary, it was not so as those schools that did not opt for it would have to close down.

The association said it had a membership of more than 1,100 schools and not all of them had violated the undertaking they had given to the Government on teaching in Kannada.

It said when the schools were started after 1994, they had been permitted to teach in Kannada, Tamil and Telugu and any of the other recognised mother tongue.

The Government defended the voluntary scheme and said action had been initiated only against those schools that had violated the norms of medium of instruction. It urged the court to vacate an interim stay against the derecognition of schools.

Justice Rammohan Reddy, who heard the petitions, said there was no ground, as of now, for vacating the stay on derecognition.

He directed the members of the association to file an affidavit before Thursday on the medium of instruction in which they were teaching the students and if they had adhered to the undertaking they had given to the Government at the time of starting the school.

Another school had said that it was imparting education in English as the State itself had given a no-objection certificate (NoC) to it for starting a section with ICSE syllabus.

Justice Rammohan Reddy adjourned hearing on the petitions to Thursday.

Modification

In a related development, several schools and the association had filed an interlocutory application (IA) before the Karnataka High Court for modification of an interim order passed on May 24.

In that order, Justice A.C. Kabbin had directed the primary schools to admit students only in the medium of instruction in which the school had been permitted to start.

Justice A.C. Kabbin, before whom the IA came up, said he had passed the interim order during the vacation and directed the IA to be posted before the regular Bench which was hearing similar cases.

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