It's not fair to ask exemption for compulsory Tamil learning

In Tamil Nadu, in 2006, the Tamilnadu Tamil Learning Act was introduced. This Act made Tamil compulsory as the first subject in all schools in Tamil Nadu. Against this Act, when the Act was brought in, minority schools had filed cases in the High Court and the Supreme Court.

However, the Supreme Court refused to accept it, saying, 'The Tamil Learning Act does not deprive the minority educational institutions of any right under Articles 29 and 30 of the Constitution. Learning the local language is very beneficial for children. On the contrary, refusing to teach the local language is not good for the unity of the country', it ruled.

Due to this, students of other language schools including Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Urdu also had to write the Tamil test in the public examination. The Madras High Court, hearing a case filed by language minority schools against this Act, imposed an interim stay on the implementation of the Tamilnadu Tamil Learning Act in 2015-16.

The ban was extended by the High Court till 2021-&22. In this situation, a petition was filed in the Supreme Court on behalf of the Tamil Nadu Linguistic Minority Association seeking an exemption for foreign language students to write the Tamil examination.

The hearing on this petition was held yesterday before the session presided over by Justice S.K Kaul. After listening to the arguments of both sides, the Supreme Court has ordered the Tamil Nadu government to "exempt one more year to students belonging to linguistic minorities to write the Tamil exam in the 10th standard general examination".

The judgment of the Supreme Court is not based on merit; It seems that this interim judgment has been given on the basis that it is not possible to complete the investigation of this case before the 10th class general exams are going to be held soon.

If the case filed by the minority schools against the compulsory subject of Tamil had been heard in the Supreme Court earlier, Tamil would have been made compulsory from the current year till class 10.
Therefore, the Tamil Nadu government should ensure that Tamil is made a compulsory subject from next year at least up to class 10 by giving due pressure to the case pending in the Supreme Court. 

Again the exemption should not be extended by the court. Even though they are a linguistic minority, they should study Tamil in Tamil Nadu. Even more so, no one has the right to refuse to study Tamil after receiving generous concessions from the Tamil Nadu government!