New Delhi: The Supreme Court (SC) on Thursday refused a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) which had demanded that Hindi be made compulsory up to Class VIII in all schools across the country.

“We can’t pass such orders. Tomorrow somebody will say make Sanskrit compulsory or make Punjabi compulsory,” an apex court bench led by Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar said.

The SC pointed out that the Narendra Modi government was already taking steps to promote Hindi in the country.

“They are doing it themselves very much. These are all policy decisions. How can we issue orders,” the court asked petitioner Ashwini Upadhyay.

Upadhyay, Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) spokesperson for Delhi, told the court that teaching Hindi compulsorily in schools was a must for national integration.

Upadhyay further claimed that it was a constitutional obligation to promote Hindi.

“It will promote fraternity, unity and national integration, the great golden goals as set out in Preamble of the Constitution. At present, when a North Indian visits East, West or South India, he becomes a foreigner, as he cannot read, write and understand their local language. Hindi binds all,” Upadhyay said in the petition.

The plea referred to various constitutional provisions and non-execution of the three-language formula enunciated in the 1968 National Policy Resolution by the Centre in consultation with the states.

However, the court still refused to entertain his plea.

“Why have you come to court with this demand. You say you are a BJP man. Why don’t you approach the government? Your party is in power”, the Bench commented.

Upadhyay pointed out that at the time of framing and adoption of the Constitution, it was envisaged that English will continue to be used for executive, judicial and legal purposes for an initial period of 15 years i.e. till 1965 only. The period of 15 years was prescribed after detailed deliberation so that necessary arrangements could be made for smooth language transition.

“Students are opting English as a compulsory language but choose Hindi as optional, which is not good. Every nation makes his national language as compulsory part of syllabus and curriculum particularly in primary education. However, in India, Hindi is not compulsory for all the students of I-VIII standard,” Upadhyay told the court.

Interestingly, however, if the government has its way, the students of schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and Kendriya Vidyalyas (KVs) may have to compulsorily study Hindi language till Class X.

In March, the Department of Official Language of the Home Ministry pulled out a 2011 report of a Committee of Parliament on Official Language and sent it to the President for approval. As many as 110 out of the 117 recommendations in this report were accepted by the President. In consonance with that, the Home Ministry has issued an advisory to all states and government departments to implement the recommendations. Besides, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has been instructed to form a policy in consultation with the state governments to make Hindi language compulsory in schools.

Meanwhile, experts and intellectuals condemn making Hindi teaching compulsory in schools.

“As I can see things, this is going to create a lot of problems in several states, including both the Hindi-speaking and non-Hindi speaking states. This is clearly an attempt to divide the country by the petitioners in court and by the government at the helm,” says Delhi-based academician and linguist Swarnim Mishra.

Faced with criticism over the recommendation, Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju had last week said the government was only promoting Hindi as per an Act of Parliament.

He said the recommendation is “in the form of a request and does not entail any form of order or instruction”.