Supreme Court Gives Tamil Nadu 3 Months to Identify Navodaya School Land, Asks TVK Government to Reconsider Hindi Stand

A Supreme Court bench of Justices B.V. Nagarathna and Augustine George Masih on September 17 directed the Tamil Nadu government to identify land for setting up Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVs) in every district of the state within three months.

The bench was hearing an application filed by the Tamil Nadu government, led by Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay's TVK administration, seeking to recall an earlier court order relating to the establishment of the central government-run residential schools. The court declined the request, saying it would not recall the order.

The judges also told the state government to reconsider its position on teaching Hindi, remarking that Hindi could not be excluded from Tamil Nadu, and that "it can't be that Hindi will not be taught in the soil of Tamil Nadu."

Tamil Nadu's opposition to JNVs, inherited from the previous DMK government, rests on the state's long-standing two-language policy of Tamil and English, under which it has declined to adopt the three-language formula followed in most other states.

The order sets up a fresh point of friction between the state and the Centre over Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas and language policy, an issue that has recurred under successive Tamil Nadu governments.