New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday sought the Centre’s response to the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) decision to introduce the three-language policy from Class VI onwards from this academic year, after parents challenged the move, citing a shortage of textbooks and teachers for several Indian languages.
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A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Surya Kant issued notice on two fresh petitions filed by parents of Class V and VI students from across the country. The petitioners argued that the policy is difficult to implement as schools lack the infrastructure and manpower required to teach many of the prescribed languages.
Senior advocates Gopal Sankaranarayanan and Anand Grover, appearing for the parents, told the court: “The CBSE has written to all heads of schools to ensure the books for the 22 scheduled languages are purchased. Even today, books are available only for 3 out of the 22 languages. This creates the complete impossibility of manpower and infrastructure for all schools.”
The fresh petitions, filed through advocates Shradha Deshmukh and Rohit Kumar Singh, argued that the CBSE circulars are based on an erroneous classification of English as a “non-native” language. “The entire edifice of the circulars (under challenge) rests on the constitutionally untenable premise that English is a ‘non-native’ language,” the petitions stated.
The bench said: “The only issue to be determined is whether English can be considered as an indigenous Indian language. At one point of time, Parsi was the official language of our courts.”
The latest petitions come after the apex court, on May 27, issued notice on another batch of pleas challenging CBSE’s earlier decision to mandate the study of two Indian languages from Class IX. At the time, the court noted the “logistical” concerns raised by parents regarding the availability of textbooks and teachers for many of the 22 languages listed by CBSE.
Following the criticism, CBSE issued a circular on June 29 stating that students entering Class IX in 2026-27 would continue with the three-language combination studied in Class VIII. It further said that for students entering Class VI in 2026-27 and subsequent batches, two of the three languages would have to be Bharatiya Bhashas (Indian languages).
The bench, also comprising justices Joymalya Bagchi and V Mohan Ram, observed: “As we understand, despite the June 29 notification, the matter still survives.”
On Tuesday, separate affidavits were filed by the Ministry of Education, CBSE, and NCERT in the matter filed by the parents of Class IX students. The Ministry of Education said the move promotes “multilingual learning” and “national integration” in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. CBSE maintained that the policy was not introduced abruptly but through a “planned, phased and systematic process”, adding that steps had been taken to address the availability of teachers and learning resources.
NCERT said textbooks for Hindi, Sanskrit, Marathi and Urdu have already been prepared, while material for the remaining scheduled languages will be available by the end of this month.
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Centre, told the court that a comprehensive response addressing all concerns would be filed after the government received the fresh petitions.
