- (1.) Leave granted.
(2.) Amendments to, principle or subordinate legislation either by executive decisions or by legislative Act should normally have one paramount consideration in mind, that is, the persons who are going to be affected by such amendment. In other words, legislative impact is one aspect which always should be examined by the Government concerned before it takes any decision which is likely to affect a larger section of the society. The legislative amendment in the present case is one such example which is bound to have upon its implementation great impact upon the education system (primary and middle) as well as the lakhs of students for whose benefit there is dispensation of education by the Government in the State of Tamil Nadu.
(3.) The Division Bench of the Madras High Court vide its judgment dated 30th April, 2010, while granting reliefs to the Petitioners and issuing certain directions concluded as under: We have upheld the power of the State to bring in a school system common to all in the interest of social justice and quality education. As an aside, we would like to point out that the phrase 'Uniform School system' does not bring to the mind the same meaning that the words in Tamil do, which immediately indicates equity and quality in education. Implementation of the syllabus and textbooks is postponed till the Academic Year 2011-2012 or until the State makes known the norms and the syllabus and prepares the text books in advance. In the meantime, the State will bring the provisions of the impugned Act in line with the Central Act, e.g., the State shall specify by notification, the Academic Authority and the State Advisory Council. The Government shall also indicate what the approved textbooks are: The Government shall, by amending the section or by introducing a schedule to the Act, indicate that the syllabus is restricted to curricular subjects. The schools are bound to follow the common sysllabus only for the curricular subjects and not the co-curricular subjects. The schools may choose from multiple textbooks, viz., Government produced textbooks, which are the prescribed text books and the government approved text books, in all subjects both curricular and co-curricular. The schools shall follow the norms as far as they are practicable. There can be no Board Examinations upto the level of elementary education, but assessment norms may be specified. The schools which teach all the subjects in a language other than Tamil or English shall inform the competent authority of the language of their choice; in view of the Full Bench decision, the approval is automatic. The above intimation is only to facilitate the State to provide appropriate textbooks. Norms shall be fixed by the Board which will include both the ex officio members and the other members. The State may make it clear whether this Board will also be the Academic Authority under the Central Act. Since we have held that there cannot be strict and rigid norms, Section 11 and 12 of the impugned Act are struck down. Section 14 of the impugned Act is also struck down. 64. All the writ petitions are disposed of accordingly. There shall be no order as to costs. Consequently, all the connected miscellaneous petitions are closed.;