Chennai, May 6 (IANS): A division bench of the Madras High Court said on Friday that the case against religious conversion of students in Tamil Nadu schools is maintainable.

The division bench comprising Justices R. Mahadevan and S. Ananthi said it was convinced with the maintainability of a case seeking a directive from the state government to frame guidelines to prevent forced religious conversion in schools.

The court directed the Tamil Nadu government to file a counter-affidavit to the PIL filed by advocate Jagannathan, and asked Advocate General R. Shanmugasundaram to ascertain that it is filed within four weeks.

Jagannathan in his PIL had alleged that religious conversion was taking place in government and government-aided schools, and accused the state government of tacitly supporting these activities.

In his PIL, the advocate also alleged that a Tamil media channel in a sting operation revealed religious conversion activities at schools in Nagercoil, Theni, Tenkasi and Thoothukudi.

A Class 12 student in Thanjavur had committed suicide in January alleging that she was forced to convert to Christianity by the warden of her hostel.

She had also complained that the warden made her do menial work at the school hostel, leading to her losing focus in her studies and that she had no other option but to end her life.