K SHYAM SUNDER Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) About one crore twenty three lakh school children of Standards I to X in the State of Tamil Nadu are without any textbooks and syllabus, and along with their parents, they are in a dilemma as to whether the Uniform Syllabus, which was to commence as per the Tamil Nadu Uniform System of School Education Act, 2010, would be postponed because of the amendment brought in the Act by the new Government immediately after coming into power, and also as to whether the textbooks as per the new syllabus got printed and made ready by spending about 200 crore rupees of public money by the erstwhile Government would be destroyed or disposed of.

(2.) Before arriving at any conclusion as directed by the Supreme Court, we have to first discuss the brief history of the legislation. For the purpose of achieving social justice and quality education, the erstwhile Government enacted the Samacheer Kalvi Thittam, i.e., Uniform System of School Education Act, 2010 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act of 2010') and introduced common syllabus, textbooks and examination for the four streams of education prevalent in the State. It is to be noted here that in the State of Tamil Nadu, there are four streams of school education namely, State Board Schools, Matriculation Schools, Oriental Schools and Anglo- Indian Schools and these schools have separate syllabus, textbooks and scheme of examinations and are under the control of different Boards, as a result of which the standard of education in these schools is not uniform. Therefore, the Government was of the view that it is indispensable to evolve a uniform system of school education in the State to ensure social justice and provide quality education in all the schools in the State. For this purpose, the Government constituted a committee under the Chairmanship of Dr. S. Muthukumaran, Former Vice-Chancellor of Bharathidasan University, to examine the possibilities of implementing a Uniform System of School Education. The Committee submitted its recommendations to the Government. The Government constituted a one Man Committee with Thiru. M.P. Vijaya Kumar I.A.S. (Retired) to look into the recommendations of the Dr. S. Muthukumaran Committee. The one Man Committee submitted its recommendations to the Government. It appears that a team of educationists under the Chairmanship of Thiru. M.P. Vijayakumar, I.A.S., visited the States of Kerala, Karnataka, Gujarat and Maharastra and reviewed the education system in those States and submitted its report on various matters regarding the school education. The Government, on a consideration of these reports, accepted the idea that all schools in the State should have a common syllabus, textbooks and examination system as only this will ensure social justice and provide quality education and accordingly enacted the Act 8 of 2010.

(3.) The Private Schools' Association from various districts challenged the aforesaid Act of 2010 on the ground that the Act interfered with the right of children to choose their preferred system of education and also on various other grounds. The vires of the aforesaid Act of 2010 has been upheld by a Division Bench of this Court by its judgment dated 30.4.2010 in W.P. Nos. 3051 of 2010 and batch of cases (hereinafter referred to as 'the Division Bench judgment' for the sake of brevity).