Plea seeks Rajasthani language in teacher recruitment exam syllabus, SC issues notice

New Delhi, Jan 10 (PTI) The Supreme Court on Friday issued a notice to the state government seeking a response on a plea for including Rajasthani language in the syllabus for state's teacher recruitment exam.

The plea said the exclusion of the language spoken by over 4.62 crore people in Rajasthan from the examination undermined the state’s cultural heritage and the right to education in the mother tongue.

A bench comprising Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta heard senior advocate Manish Singhvi on behalf of the petitioners and sought the response of the state government and others including the principal secretary and the coordinator Rajasthan Eligibility Exam for Teacher.

Singhvi appeared for petitioners, Padam Mehta, a veteran journalist and editor of vernacular magazine Manak, and Kalyan Singh Shekhawat, a renowned scholar and advocate of the language.

The plea said over 4.62 crore people spoke Rajasthani as their mother tongue, yet the language was excluded from the syllabus for REET conducted to recruit teachers for classes 1 to 5 and 6-8 in Rajasthan.

Other less widely spoken languages in the state, such as Gujarati, Punjabi, Sindhi, and Urdu, were included in the examination, the plea said.

The plea said this exclusion violated constitutional provisions such as Article 350A, underlining the importance of teaching children in their mother tongue, and the principles outlined in the Right to Education Act and the National Education Policy 2020.

Highlighting the cultural and linguistic significance of Rajasthani, the petition noted the state assembly had passed a resolution over two decades ago to include Rajasthani in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution, officially recognising it as a distinct language.

However, the petitioners lamented the resolution was not implemented.

The plea said the petitioners did not seek the exclusion of any other language but were advocating for Rajasthani to be treated equally and included in the REET syllabus to preserve and promote the state’s linguistic heritage.

The need to recruit teachers proficient in Rajasthani would ensure effective education in the mother tongue, a fundamental principle for linguistic minorities under the Constitution, it said.

The appeal was filed in the apex court challenging the Rajasthan High Court order dismissing a plea of the petitioners in 2021. PTI SJK AMK