B S Ramesh/The Hindu

• Council cites the Supreme Court judgment in a Maharashtra school case 
• ISCE Council says it was a national board and English was the common medium of instruction
• Schools asked to take NoC to ensure that they had the necessary infrastructure

Bangalore, Dec 18: After being recently rapped by the Karnataka High Court for making Kannada compulsory as a medium of instruction in private unaided schools, the State Government is in the dock again and this time it is the Council for Indian School Certificate Examinations (ISCE) that has said that Karnataka should not impose any restrictions on these schools on the medium of instruction.

The council has said that the State should not insist that an unaided institution which seeks no-objection certificate (NoC) or recognition should adopt Kannada as the medium of instruction.

The council said it was a national board and it had prescribed English as the medium of instruction to all its affiliated schools in different States and Karnataka was no exception. However, though the State had given NoC or recognised such institutions, it was insisting that they should not teach in English but only in Kannada.

The Council has made these submissions in an affidavit filed by the Additional Secretary-Officiating Executive and Secretary of the Council, Gerry Arathoon, before the Karnataka High Court on Wednesday.

It said the State Government should frame policies as per the law of the land and not impose any restrictions on private schools. Such restrictions, he said, would lead to delay in granting affiliation. It said the Supreme Court in 2008 had in the Superstar Education Society versus the State of Maharashtra and others held that in matters relating to grant of NoC by the State Government, the object of regulating permission was to ensure that they had the required infrastructure and that they maintained standards of education.

It said that the State could not impose any condition regarding medium of instruction for schools seeking affiliation from or with examining boards, including the council. It said the council was a recognised national board under the Delhi School Education Act which was passed by Parliament in 1973. The students of the board were, therefore, not confined to any single State.

It said the State move to restrict the medium of instruction was nothing but interference in the right of a school management and the right of the children to pursue their preferred medium of instruction.