State of Karnataka v. Associated Management of Primary and Secondary Schools
Background
Karnataka required mother tongue or Kannada as the teaching medium in classes I to IV in recognised schools, allowing English only for children whose mother tongue was English. Private school managements challenged the policy as restricting constitutional freedoms. The Constitution Bench considered whether educational benefits of mother-tongue teaching justified compulsory use in the schools concerned.
Decision Breakdown
The Court dismissed the State's appeals and the connected petition. A child, through a parent or guardian, has freedom to choose the primary-school teaching language under Article 19(1)(a). The State could not impose mother-tongue teaching as a recognition condition on minority schools or private unaided schools merely because experts considered it beneficial; minority institutions' constitutional choice also extended to their teaching medium. Article 350A requires efforts to provide mother-tongue facilities for linguistic minorities, but does not empower the State to compel that choice. Recognition requirements remained distinct from permission to impose the challenged language restriction.
Lesson Learnt
For parents using the schools covered by this ruling, government preference for mother-tongue teaching could not remove their choice of teaching medium. Providing language facilities and requiring a single language are legally different measures.