IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT MADRAS

(Special Original Jurisdiction)

W.P. No. OF 2010

Kancheepuram District Self Financing

Schools Association
Chrompet,
CHENNAI-600 044.
Rep by its Secretary S.Princebabu Rajendran

...Petitioner
-Vs-

1. . The State of Tamilnadu,

Rep. by its Principal Secretary to Government,
School Education Department,
Fort St. George,
Chennai – 600 009.

2. The Director of Tamil Nadu Matriculation Schools,

College Road,
Chennai-600 006. ...Respondents

AFFIDAVIT ON BEHALF OF THE PETITIONER

I S. Princebabu Rajendran, S/o. Sri.M.Samuvel, Hindu, aged about 47 years,

Chrormepet, Chennai-44 do hereby solemnly affirm and sincerely state as
follows:-

1. I am the Secretary of the Kancheepuram District Self Financing

Schools Association the Petitioner herein and as such I am well acquainted with
the facts of the above case. I am filing this Affidavit on behalf of the Petitioner
herein.

2. The Petitioner Association is an organization formed to espouse the

cause of the Matriculation Schools functioning in the Kancheepuram District in
the state of Tamil Nadu. The Petitioner has members. The Petitioner
Association has been duly registered as a Society under the Provisions of the
Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act, 1975 as amended by Tamil Nadu Act 15
of 2002. The registration No is S. No.40/2010.

Page No.1
No. of corn-
 2

3. The Petitioner humbly submits that the Governor of Tamil nadu promulgated
Ordinance 4 of 2009 namely Tamilnadu Uniform System of School Education
Ordinance 2009 , to provide for uniform system of school education in the State
avowedly to ensure social justice and to provide quality of education . The said
Ordinance was passed by the State Assembly as the Tamilnadu Uniform
System of School Education Act, 2010. . The preamble to Tamilnadu Uniform
System of School Education Act, 2010 to the states that at present there are 4
streams of school education in the State of Tamilnadu, namely Matriculation,
Oriental, State Board, and Anglo-Indian . These streams have separate syllabus,
textbooks and scheme of education and are under the control of different Boards
of Control . The preamble proceeds to state that on account of this there is no
uniformity in the standard of education and that the Government is of the view
that in order to ensure social justice and to provide quality education in the state
it is necessary to have uniform system of education in the state . Pursuant
thereto the Government constituted a committee to examine the issue and
submit a report and after studying the report the one man committee made
recommendation to the government and a team after visiting 4 states also
submitted a report on the administrative set up of the school education
department and Boards of education , examination systems and evaluation
methods adopted by those states and the government after studying the reports
accepted the idea that all schools having common syllabus , text books and
examination system will ensure social justice and provide quality education
and accordingly decided to implement the uniform system of school education by
passing the said Act .

4. The petitioner humbly submits that the “Tamilnadu Uniform System of

School Education Act, 2010” infringes the rights of the private unaided institutions
and the members of the Association of Matriculation Schools.

5. The number of schools, students and teachers in schools functioning

under the various boards in the State of Tamilnadu are as given below . As per
the 2009 Statistics there are 4100 Matriculation schools and over 27 lakh
teachers in the said schools.

2
 3

TYPE OF BOARD NO OF NO OF TEACHER

SCHOOLS STUDENTS STRENGTH

1. Matriculation Board 1421 11,26,212 50,740

2. Anglo Indian Board 29 041,986 1,081

3. Oriental Board 10 6,205 170

4. State Board of2990 35,74,402 94,518

Education
5. Central Board of75 Details are not available
Secondary Education
6. ICSE , International
Board
Total ( excluding the CBSE4,523 47,48,805 1,46,509
Board,
ICSE , International
Board )

(Statistics supplied by the School Education Department as per 2005-06

academic year ).The number of schools has increased considerably in the last 4
to 5 years.

6. The Schools coming under the different Boards of Education are

distinct, unique and have their own identity. The salient feature of the school
education in Tamilnadu is the prevalence of various Boards of Education giving
wide choice of systems of education to parents and students. Each Board
adopts its own system of education with different teaching methods, curriculum ,
languages, sport activities , co-curricular activities and extra Curricular activity,
religious study on the basis of expert advice and after due deliberation by the
managements of the respective schools .

7. The schools follow scientific method of teaching . The students have

good exposure to English language , Tamil and minority languages . The
respective codes of Education of the Board of Matriculation , Oriental, State
Board and the Anglo Indian System of education empower the affiliated schools
to have their innovative system of education till the Class X. It is pertinent to point

3
 4

out that the Common Prescribed books are used after the introduction of the
public exams at the Class X level in the state of Tamil nadu for the Matriculation,
Oriental and Anglo-Indian schools. The Schools coming under the Matriculation,
Oriental and Anglo-Indian Boards are autonomous except at the Higher Level of
education at Class X level in following common Prescribed Books .

8. It is submitted that Act … of 2009 under the guise of rationalizing the

education and bringing about a common curriculum in the state has tried to
encroach into the following rights of the Matriculation schools.
1. Right to follow their own pattern of teaching, Training, imparting
education.
2. Right to have their own system of examination and evaluation of
Students upto standard IX.
3. Right to have their own co-curricular activities and extra curricular
activities
4. Right to have their own innovative Systems of education and teaching
methods .
5. Right to globalize and liberalize the system of Education
6. Right to have infrastructure of their choice
7. Right to maintain unique standard of education.

9. It is significant to point out that the Matriculations schools are mostly

charitable institutions run by minorities , both linguistic and religious minorities.
The Code of Matriculation, Oriental and Anglo-Indian Board has empowered the
minorities to have the institutions of their choice . They enjoy autonomy in
prescription of books, curriculum as enshrined in Article 29 and 30(1) of the
Constitution . The following rights enjoyed by the institutions of linguistic and
religious minority has been recognized for many years.

1. They were empowered to have their religious education or moral

science as a subject in the curriculum
2. Religious instructions can be taught without any restriction
3. The religious instruction shall form as a part of daily affairs of the
institution.
4. To propaganda religious faith and profess of Religious ideas
5. Any recognized Script , Language, form of language can be taught
without restriction.

4
 5

6. No compulsion inflicted on the students to have a particular language

as a subject.
8. Equip the Student studying in the Tamilnadu to have his/her
education continued in any other part of country
It is necessary to take into consideration the history of 4 the streams and its
special features for the better appreciation of the identity enjoyed by the
institutions.

I)Matriculation Schools
10. It is submitted that the Matriculation Schools in the State of Tamil
Nadu were originally affiliated to the Madras University. When Madurai Kamaraj
University was established, the Matriculation Schools in that area were
transferred from Madras University to Madurai Kamaraj University for Affiliation.
Later at the instance of the Madras University, the Government of Tamil Nadu
transferred the Matriculation Schools to the control of Director of School
Education with a separate Board of Matriculation Schools, by G.O.Ms.No.2816
Education Department dt.29.11.1976. It is submitted that subsequent to adoption
of Code of Regulations for Matriculation Schools, Tamil Nadu with effect from
22.09.1980 the Matriculation schools are governed by the said code.

11. It is submitted that Matriculation Schools are allowed to retain their

original structure and hence they are permitted to fix the fees to be charged from
the students and as such they are not eligible for any grant. The Matriculation
Schools have the freedom to adopt their own curriculum and make innovations
to meet the challenges of the modern world . During the last two academic years
of the students ie IX and X standard they have to adopt a common curriculum as
they have prepare their students for the public examinations. It is submitted that
the Matriculation examination, which was formerly conducted by the University is
now conducted at the end of Standard X by the Director of Government
Examinations, who will also conduct the Higher Secondary Public Examination at
the end of Standard XII for all types of schools .

12. It is submitted that the Government of Tamil Nadu by

G.O.Ms.No.188 School Education Department dt. 8.11.2001 decided to establish
a separate Directorate of Matriculation Schools and directed all the Matriculation
Schools in the State of Tamil Nadu to share the administrative cost of the
department . It is submitted that the Government in its order in G.O.Ms.No.54

5
 6

School Education Department dt.30.04.2002 fixed the contribution for the

schools according to its pupil strength ranging from Rs.10,000/- to Rs.1,00,000/-.
It is submitted that the Managements of Matriculation Schools are not getting
any grant from the Government of Tamil Nadu. Therefore the Directorate of
Matriculation Schools, established in the year 2002 is functioning out of the
capital contributed by the Matriculation Schools in Tamil Nadu.

13. It is submitted that English alone has been the medium of instruction in the
Matriculation Schools . It is submitted that the total number of students who
wrote X standard Matriculation examinations during the Academic Year 2008-
2009 is around 2,00,000 .The number of students from the Matriculation Schools
in the state of Tamil Nadu who wrote XII standard Higher Secondary Public
examinations during the Academic year 2008-2009 is around 1,60,000.

II)NURSERY AND PRIMARY SCHOOLS

14. It is humbly submitted that primary schools comprise Standards I to V.

Prior to that the children study for two years in classes known as Lower
Kindergarten and Upper Kindergarten in Nursery Schools. Many primary and
nursery schools were started during 1980 without any recognition. The
Government in order to regulate all the unrecognized nursery and primary
schools brought them under the control of the Director of Elementary Education
and framed “the Code of Regulation for unrecognized Nursery and Primary
Schools”, as per G.O.Ms.No.484 (Education Department), dated 24.4.1991.The
said GO was subsequently amended in G.O.Ms.No.349, (Education
Department), dated 31.3.1993. By these orders the approved nursery and
primary schools are allowed to retain their original structure and they are also
permitted to fix fees. They are not eligible for any grant in aid from the
Government. As per Regulation 7 of the said Code, all the primary schools will
continue to use English or Tamil or any other (minority) language as medium of
instruction.

15. Under Regulation 7(a) Tamil should be taught compulsorily in all Nursery
Schools. By G.O.Ms.No.421 (Education Department), dated 27.11.1998 the
Government issued orders to the effect that the nursery and primary Schools
which are going to implement Tamil as medium of instruction in Part III subjects,

6
 7

will get fifty per cent concession in registration/renewal fee and entertainment
fee. Subsequently, the Government of Tamil Nadu passed G.O.Ms.No.6 (School
EdcuationC2 Department), dated 13.1.1999, directing that all Nursery and
Primary Schools to teach two subjects out of Mathematics, Science and Social
Studies (History and Geography) through the medium of Tamil and that approval
for the schools will be granted subject to the fulfillment of the aforesaid
requirements.

III)THE ANGLO-INDIAN SCHOOLS

16. The petitioner submits that some where between 1820 and 1830, San
Thome , an Orphanage , was established by a Portuguese by name Augustinian
friar, Manuel de Ave Maria, Episcopal Administrator of the Diocese of Mylapore,
for poor children of European parentage and Anglo-Indians. It is one of the oldest
orphanages in India. At that time the orphans were accommodated in the lower
portion of the ancient palace of the Portuguese Governor of San Thome, then the
residence of the Bishop of Mylapore. A school was established for the orphans
with just 15 inmates . But it marks the first step towards an institution for Anglo-
Indian children. From then onwards thousands of Anglo-Indian children have
benefited from this great institution. Before the Santhome High School was
opened some time around 1886, the inmates of the orphanage attended St.
Francis Xavier's Middle School and later the Santhome High School. In 1906-
1907 Lord Curzon announced the new scheme of European education for the
whole of India. His Lordship, Dr. Theotonius Emmanuel Ribeiro Vieira de Castro,
then Bishop of Mylapore, decided to open a school separate from the Santhome
High School for the benefit of Anglo-Indian children. Thus St. Bede's High School
was born. The first batch of high school students from St. Bede's appeared for
the European High School Examination in December 1909. Later the British
recognized Anglo Indian Schools , Institutions and colleges basically to educate
the descendants of Anglo – Indian Community who identified themselves as a
British nationals. The Anglo-Indian Community consists of people from mixed
British and Indian ancestry whose native language is English.

17. The framers of the Constitution of India realised that a constitutional

protection is extended to Anglo Indian institutes. Article 337 of the Constitution
ensured educational grnts for the benefit of anglo Indian community for 10 years
from the framing of the constitution . The State government passed the Code of
Regulation for Anglo-Indian Schools, Tamilnadu for protecting the European or

7
 8

Anglo-Indian Right to education at their choice. The curriculum of study shall be

followed at their own with the sanction of the Inspector of Anglo Indians.

IV)ORIENTAL SCHOOLS

18. The oriental Schools are similar to the Madrassa School of education
imparting Urdu and Sanskrit, Arabic as Language to the students at all levels.
The Oriental Schools are run by the Muslim Minority Section of the Society in
order to propagate their religion and language at all levels.

19. Some of the linguistic Muslim minority settled in the state of

Tamilnadu .Some of the minorities of North India and Hindi speaking
minorities while migrating to the State of Tamil Nadu preferred to have their
ward in the Oriental School. The Oriental System of education patronizes Islam
and the ideas of the Scholars of the Islam. The system is a stream of education
with the object of protecting the interest of the Linguistic and Religious muslim
minority. The students takes the common examination at the X level and the
certificates are issued on the examination system followed by the other stream
of education

V)STATE BOARD SCHOOLS

20. The petitioner humbly submits that the State Board Schools were started
around 1925 to 1926 .Initially the state Board Schools were charging fees from
student and later , after the government introduced the Free Education System,
the fees was abolished. The Students in the State Board School were
encouraged to write the Board Exams in their mother Tongue. At present the
students are allowed to write their exam in Tamil, English, Gujarathi, Kannada,
Malayalam, Telugu , French, Arabic, Persian and Sanskrit .The state Board
schools being instrumentalities of the state are run to fulfil the constitutional
obligations of universal education .

8
 9

EXAMINATIONS

21 It is vital to state that the 4 stream of educations have different evaluation

process for promotion of the students to Class X level. The Schools following
the Oriental, Matriculation, Anglo-Indian Board are entitled to have a evaluation
criteria of their own to evaluate the students . After the introduction of the
common public exams in all 4 streams at the X level the Director of Examination
was vested with the duty to conduct the Public Examination in coordination with
the Directors of concerned stream or Board. The Directors of the Oriental,
Matriculation, Anglo-Indian Boards recommend the standard books and
curriculum for their schools. The pattern of the exams of the 4 streams is
enumerated bellow . The 4 streams concentrate on different subjects. For
instance , the Anglo Indian and the Oriental Boards focus on language and
religion .The Matriculation focus on academics.

Boards
S.No Subject State Board Matriculation Anglo-Indian Oriental

Paper Marks Paper Marks Paper Marks Paper Mark

1. Language 2 100 2 200 1 100 1 100
2. English 2 100 2 200 2 200 2 100
3. Maths 1 100 2 200 2 200 1 100
4 Science 1 100 2 200 2 200 1 100
Practical - - 2 100 2 100
5. Social 1 100 2 200 2 200 1 100
Science Is not
compulsory
6 Oriental 2 200
Language
Total 7 500 12 1100 11 1000 8 600

SUBJECTS

22 The examination will be conducted for the following subjects on the dates
fixed by the Director of Government Examinations. The duration of each
examination varies from stream to stream . The details of the subjects are
enumerated below. The subjects are

9
 10

AngloIndian
Subject SSLC OSLC Matriculation

Tamil or Hindi First Language,

1st Tamil or Tamil or Mother
Tamil, Telugu,
Language Mother Tongue Language
Malayalam, Hindi,
Tongue Paper I
French
Paper-I
Language
Paper I

Tamil or Main Language Paper

Mother I Sanskrit / Arabic /
Paper-II
Tongue Persian
Language
Paper II

English
Paper-I English English Paper II
Paper I

Paper-II English Advanced Paper III

Paper II

Main Language
English Paper I

Extra –III
English Paper II
paper
Mathematics
Mathematics Mathematics Mathematics- I,II

Science
Science Science Botany, Zoology, Science
Physics,Chemistry
(Practical in all
Science subjects
will be conducted

10
 11

for 50 marks)

Social
Social Social Science History & Civics , Social Science
Science
Science Compulsory subject Geography
but not taken into
account for eligibility
purpose.

The Petitioner submits that the 4 streams of education are formulated to cater
the needs of various sections of the society. The schools affiliated to the State
Board of Education forms as a platform for imparting education with simplicity
enabling the down trodden, Adi Dravidars, Scheduled Tribes and others who do
not undergo proper system of education or schooling in the primary level to meet
the challenges of the modern world .

23. The system of education of the Anglo Indian as stated above advocates a
strong knowledge of English and the allied subjects. While so, the Oriental
Scheme of Education propagates the Islamic, Vedic and epic style of education.
The epic language of Sanskrit is being taught at the lowest level in the Oriental
stream of education.

Medium of Instruction:

24. It is humbly submitted that the 30% of the population of the State of
Tamilnadu are of linguistic minorities. The Telugu speaking population amounts
to 10% of the total population of the State. The migrated population of the other
States constitute rest of the 20% of the population . It is pertinent to point out
the State of Tamilnadu has enabled the migratory population of the different
States to continue their education in their own medium of education. The State
Board of education is characterized of different medium of instruction. The
students are permitted to write non language subject exam in Urdu, Sanskrit,

11
 12

Hindi, French, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu and other languages. On the other
hand, the Matriculation Board students have English as a medium of education
and have the first language in Tamil, Hindi, French or German or any other
language as per their wish.

25. The diverse pattern of medium of instruction and the Second Language
found in Tamilnadu are enumerated as per the statistical report of the
Government in the year 2004-05.

Subject State Board Matriculation Anglo-Indian Oriental Total

Tamil 7,28,427 87,499 3504 8,19,470
French 226 1,754 161 2141
Gujarathi 14 14
Hindi 1,440 87,307 947 10,694
Kannada 448 15 463
Malayalam 2,067 310 7 2,384
Telugu 3,923 94 79 4,096
Urdu 2318 229 2,547
Sanskrit 648 330 978
Arabic 167 645 812
Total 7,38,903 99,023 4,698 975 8,43,599

The Gujarathi as a first language was recently included in the State Board of
Education enabling the migratory population from Gujarat to continue their
studies in their own mother tongue as enabled for the other migratory
population.

26.` The details of the First Language of the students who appeared for the
public examination of 2005-06 are enumerated as under. The details of the
various first language show the liberalized system of education prevalent in the
state of Tamil nadu protecting the rights of the linguistic minorities.
Language State Board Matriculation Anglo Indian Total
Tamil 6,50,700 42 6,50,742
English 81,817 98,981 4,689 1,85,496
Gujarathi 14 14
Hindi 179 179
Kannada 397 397
Malayalam 1,876 1,876
Telugu 3,726 3,726
Urdu 1,169 1,169
Total no of 7,39,878 99,023 4698 8,43,599
students

12
 13

27. It is submitted that the success of the Matriculation Institutions, Anglo

Indian Institutions is apparent from the public examination results . The
Matriculation system of education have been patronized by many of the parents
from the other States as well and even the foreign nationals have their wards
admitted to the Matriculation and the Anglo Indian boards of education founded
in the State of Tamilnadu. It is submitted that on a comparative evaluation of the
results published every year, the results of the matriculation board are
comparatively very encouraging in contrast to the state board of education. It is
seen from facts and figures that parents desire to send their wards to
Matriculation or other Board Schools rather than public schools following the
State Board of education.

28 It is humbly submitted that the common curriculum system consolidating the

above 4 streams will not achieve the desired result of improving the standard of
education .

29. COMMON CURRICULUM BOARD

(has been constituted to serve the needs of all the schools including linguistic,
religious minority institutions )
The common curriculum system was evolved on the recommendations of the
committee headed by Muthukumaran and M.P.Vijayakumar, IAS. A reading of
the minutes of the meeting and the recommendations, consultations made by the
committee, make it clear that none of the concerns of the minorities or their
grievances have been taken into account while drafting the recommendations for
the common curriculum system. The rights of the religious minorities are not
taken into account , the fact that the religious instructions are part of the system
of education has not been taken into consideration while evolving the system of
common curriculum.

13
 14

STATE BOARD ANGLO-INDIAN IOSE MATRICULATION

Government board Private board Private board Private board

constituted by code constituted by code constituted by code
State run school Basically of Constituted for the All sections of the
catholic minority Muslim Minority Schools are found

Syllabus are Syllabus are Syllabus are Syllabus are

common prescribed by the prescribed by the prescribed by the
prescribed concerned school concerned school concerned school
Language taught Main Language
Tamil, Telugu, Tamil, Telugu,
Tamil English Paper I Sanskrit /
Malayalam, Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada,
Arabic / Persian
French Urdu & English.

Subjects 5 5
5 10

29. The students at the age of 3 are admitted in the nursery schools for 2 years
in a kindergarten classes. The present common curriculum system will disable
such a system of kindergarten. The kindergarten system is attached to all
matriculation, CBSE, ICSE, Anglo Indian institutions. These institutions enrich
the kindergarten system to see that students get exposed to a different
methodology of education by visual reading and recognizing methods. The
present system of common curriculum has not ensured that the above system of
kindergarten to be continued.

30 . It is humbly submitted the present system of a common curriculum

education will be in a pattern of consolidating all the 4 streams under the direct
control of the authorities in all aspects of prescription of curriculum, qualification
of teachers, teaching of language, extra-curricular activities . On the other hand,
the CBSE system of schools and the ICSE schools will be in a position to have
the innovative class rooms with liberty and autonomy in prescription of books,
languages.The autonomy enjoyed by the Matriculation and the Anglo Indian
schools till this date will be taken away by the impugned legislation .

14
 15

31. The petitioner submits that imposing of Common Curriculum will constrain
the Matriculation , Anglo Indian and Oriental board schools from imparting quality
education while their counterparts following the CBSE, ICSE, IB, GCSE and
American board will have the freedom to impart quality education, curriculum,
teaching methodology, books, other teaching material, locally adaptable, time
table, individual attention (extra coaching) and introduction of other co-curricular
activities and skill development programme putting the former schools at a
disadvantage. A common curriculum will result in the students migrating to the
CBSE mode of education and ICSE system of education.

The Petitioner is aggrieved by the impugned Tamilnadu Uniform System of

School Education Act, 2010.. In the above circumstances the Petitioner has no
other alternative efficacious remedy except to invoke the extraordinary
jurisdiction of this Hon’ble Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, for
a WRIT OF DECLARATION or any other writ ,order or direction to declare
Tamilnadu Uniform System of School Education Act, 2010 as unconstitutional
and violative of the right of private educational institutions including minority
institutions to establish and administer Educational Institutions of their choice
and constitutes unreasonable restrictions on the private educational institutions
on the following among other grounds:

GROUNDS

A. The “Tamil Nadu Uniform System of School Education Act , 2009 is

violative of the rights of private unaided institutions as it imposes unreasonable
restrictions on the administration and management of those institutions.

B. The Committee submitted its recommendation after a study of the

common syllabus system in the states of Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh…. The
committee failed to appreciate that the said states did not have several streams
of education which were abolished to introduce a uniform system of syllabus
.Thus the case study was faulty and could not have formed the basis for the
recommendation and the state government erred in law in accepting the said
recommendation without noticing that the system of education in the state of
Tamil nadu is unique in so far as there are several streams of education in the
system of education in the state of Tamil Nadu and the parents have a wide
choice of education system to follow and such a choice which promotes

15
 16

competition in the pursuit of excellence cannot be taken away by introducing a

uniform system of education. In the circumstances the impugned legislation is
unconstitutional .

C. By introducing the uniform system of education the impugned legislation

along with the legislation to control the fee structure in the private educational
institutions the state has attempted nationalization of private educational
institutions by an indirect route which is impermissible under the constitution. By
taking away the autonomy of the private educational institutions both on the
aspect of curriculum and fee structure the state is attempting to control private
educational institutions and encroach into the freedom of such educational
institutions to administer their institutions to subserve the interest of the student
community in the manner they choose .

D The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (Convention on the Rights of

the Child) was adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 20th
November, 1989 and the Government of India became a signatory to this
Convention on 11th December, 1992. According to the said Declaration every
one has the right to education; and Article 26(3) of the said declaration is to the
effect that the parents have a prior right to choose the kind of education that will
be given to their children. Article 51(c) is of the Constitution of India is to the
effect that the State' shall endeavour to foster respect for International Law and
treaty obligations in the dealings of organized peoples with one another. The
Apex Court in Vishka and others v. State of Rajasthan and others, 1997 (7)
Supreme 323 has ruled that once the Indian Government accepts the
International Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the same shall have the
force of law. That being the present legal position, the State legislature cannot
pass the impugned Act which compels the private un aided educational
institutions to adopt the Uniform system of School Education as the Syllabus for
all the schools .The impugned Act takes away the choice available to the
parents to educate their children in a method which they feel is the most suitable
form of education which will enable their children to meet the challenges of the
modern world . The impugned Act is per se arbitrary and violative of Articles 14
of the Constitution of India in so far as it impinges on the right of the parents to
give the type of education of their choice which is now available under the
various streams of education.

16
 17

E. The private unaided schools enjoy the autonomy to prescribe their own
text books and adopt their own method of teaching. The State Board conducts a
common 10th standard public exam. Till now the schools are allowed to prepare
their students to take the 10th standard public exam by adopting their own
methods of teaching to achieve the goal of getting high marks in the 10Th
standard exam. The state legislature cannot dictate the method to be adopted by
private unaided institutions to achieve the goal of preparing their students to
take the 10Th standard public exam. The impugned Act in so far as it interferes
with the method adopted by the private unaided schools to achieve the said goal
is a serious encroachment on the right of the private unaided schools to prepare
the students for the 10th standard public exam .

F. The state can impose minimum standards of education. But the state
cannot set the maximum standard of education under the guise of uniform
system of education. The private unaided schools have a right under the TN
Recognised Private Schools (Regulation) Act, 1973 to administer their institutions
in the manner they want. But the said right is being taken away by the impugned
Act by introducing a uniform system of education. The impugned Act in effect is
imposing a maximum standard of education under the guise of achieving social
justice .The concept of achieving social justice through uniform system of
education and curriculum is misconcieved and the executive has been misled
into believing that social justice can be achieved through the uniform system of
education and under the wrong notion accepted the recommendation of the
committee and introduced the bill in the assembly. In order to achieve social
justice the state first abolished the concept of Common entrance test for
professional courses. But admission results for professional colleges showed
that abolition of CET did not achieve the desired result of more number of rural
students getting admitted to professional courses. Similarly the executive will
realise over a period of time that uniform system of education does not enable
the state to achieve social justice and the passing of the impugned Act was an
exercise in futility. Even though it should be constitutional goal and obligation of
each state to achieve Social justice the state of Tamil nadu should not be
under an illusion that social justice can be achieved by uniform system of
education . Social justice can be achieved by the policy of reservation and by
making the weaker section of the society economically independent by
imparting quality education in the rural schools and make them equipped to
meet the challenges of the modern world. Social justice cannot be achieved by

17
 18

pulling down the educational standards of the entire student community in the
state of Tamil nadu under the guise of uniform system of education. The
impugned Act is totally irrational and unconstitutional .

G. The students of the various streams of education in the state of Tamil

Nadu have to compete with CBSE students and ICSC students while writing the
common entrance tests for admission to professional colleges and IIT and IIMs
etc. But if the uniform system of education is introduced then definitely the
standard of education will be much lower than the standard of education now
being imparted by private unaided schools in the state of Tamil nadu and the
students will not be able to compete for the limited seats in the professional
colleges along with the CBSE schools. Thus the policy behind the uniform
system of education should be declared as irrational.

H. The preamble to the Act states that the uniform system of education is
being adopted to achieve social justice. Thus it is apparent that the state
government is of the opinion that students from private unaided schools are
getting superior standard of education vis a vis the students studying in
panchayat schools and corporation schools. Thus the whole objective of the Act
is to lower the standards of education in the private unaided schools so that the
students studying in private unaided schools do not steal a march over the
students studying in panchayat schools and corporation schools . Instead of
analyzing the reason for the poor performance of the students studying in
panchayat schools and corporation schools and improving their standard the
impugned Act attempts to bring down the standard of education in the private
unaided schools so that the so called social justice can be achieved . It is a
well known fact the teachers in panchayat schools and corporation schools are
getting huge salary and do not concentrate in preparing the students to compete
with the urban students. Instead of addressing the said problem the impugned
Act aims to introduce uniform system of education which will prove counter
productive in the long run .The objective of the Act is irrational and will not
achieve the avowed objective of improving the standard of education in the
state schools.

I. The social justice which the impugned Act seeks to achieve will not be
achieved by introducing the uniform system of education since even with the
uniform system of education the urban students will always steal a march over

18
 19

the students studying in panchayat schools and corporation schools in view of

their exposure to various extra curricular activities . Thus the objective of the Act
namely social justice cannot be achieved at all without improving the standard of
education in the rural schools.

J. As long as CBSE schools are allowed to function in the state of Tamil

Nadu the concept of uniform education in the state of Tamil Nadu will be a
myth. Seats in the professional colleges being few in number, over a period of
time it will become apparent that all the professional seats are cornered by CBSE
students. Of course by abolishing the CET the state government can counter
this argument by stating that only the marks obtained in the public exam will be
counted for the professional colleges .But as far as IIT and IIM and other state
seats are concerned the students studying the uniform system of education will
not be able to compete for the said seats. Thus the uniform system of education
will deprive the students under going the uniform system of education of the
competitive edge vis a vis the CBSE students.

K The Committee report on the Uniform System of School Education states

that the main objective of the uniform system of education is to improve the
standard of education uniformly for the schools in the State and to improve the
infrastructure facilities in all the schools in order to give high quality education.
The State Government announced that initially the Uniform Education will be
introduced in 1st and 6th standards. From the said Syllabus, it is found that
“alphabets” are introduced only from the 1st standard level. On the other hand
the Matriculation, and other board schools introduce alphabets and words in the
kindergarten level itself with advanced mode of teaching methods and staffs. If
the said Samacheer Syllabus is introduced with such low standards, then the
Tamil Nadu State children will find it hard to compete with the other State
children. Since the standard of education in the Samacheer Syllabus is low,
the interest of the students will be gravely prejudiced .

L. As per the ruling of the High Courts and the Supreme Court Linguistic
Minority institutions have complete autonomy in the matter of establishment
and administration of educational institutions. The impugned Act , under the
guise of regulation , is in fact interfering with the administration of the
educational institutions run by minorities by forcing the said educational
institutions to adopt a uniform system of education . Imposing Common

19
 20

curriculum would impinge on the rights of the minorities to administer the

institutions by prescribing their own curriculum .

Under these circumstances it is prayed that this Hon’ble Court may be pleased to
pass an AD-INTERIM INJUNCTION restraining the respondents from imposing
the common curriculum for class 1 & 6 as per the provisions of the Tamilnadu
Uniform System of School Education Act, 2010 and shall direct the State to
follow the curriculum of the four streams in their respective schools in all the
classes for the next academic year 2010 -2011 pending disposal of the writ
petition and thus render justice.

Under these circumstances, it is humbly prayed that this Hon’ble Court may be
pleased to grant an order of INTERIM STAY of the implementation and the
operation of Tamilnadu Uniform System of School Education Act, 2010 in so far
as the Members of the Petitioner Association are concerned, during the
pendency of the above Writ Petition and thus render justice.

Under these circumstances, it is prayed that this Hon’ble Court may be pleased
to issue a WRIT OF DECLARATION or any other writ , order or direction
declaring the Tamilnadu Uniform System of School Education Act, 2010. . as
irrational , unconstitutional, ultravires and violative of the right of private
educational institutions including minority institutions to establish and administer
educational institutions guaranteed under the Constitution of India and thus
render justice.

Solemnly affirmed at Chennai BEFORE ME

on this the 1st day of February, 2010

and signed his name in my presence. ADVOCATE, CHENNAI

20