Supreme Court Urges Exemption for Class 6 Students Under CBSE Three-Language Policy

The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Centre and the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to consider extending to current Class 6 students the exemption from the three-language framework that has already been granted to students of Class 7.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for the Centre and the CBSE, to grant the same relaxation enjoyed by students of Classes 7, 8 and 9 to the Class 6 batch this year.

The court noted that roughly 99 per cent of schools had adopted the third-language policy and possessed the necessary facilities, with only about 1.2 per cent falling short. It posted the pleas for hearing after six weeks and asked the CBSE to file its reply affidavit within four weeks, with a rejoinder, if any, to follow within two weeks of that filing.

The dispute stems from the CBSE's decision to align its scheme of studies with the National Education Policy, 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework for School Education, 2023. Under the framework, students must study three languages, at least two of which are categorised as Indian or "Bhartiya Bhashas". The board has listed Hindi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Odia and Assamese among Indian languages, while English, French, German, Arabic and Spanish are classified as non-native.

According to a CBSE statement issued on June 29, current batches in Classes 7, 8 and 9 will not be required to sit a board examination in the third language when they reach Class 10. The third language will instead be assessed internally by the school, with no CBSE board examination for these batches.

On September 17, the top court had asked the CBSE to consider implementing the policy for Class 6 students from the next academic session beginning 2027.

During the hearing, the Centre maintained it was not inclined to exempt the current Class 6 batch, arguing that students should begin the new language framework from the present academic year itself. The Solicitor General said the latest data covered around 28,000 CBSE-affiliated schools and that, barring about 1.2 per cent, all had complied with the requirements, with books and other materials available.

Justice Bagchi suggested that implementation for students already in Class 6 could be deferred, giving the CBSE more time to arrange qualified teachers, textbooks and other language-learning resources. He described the measure as a question of a "soft launch", adding that full implementation could begin in 2027 once schools were fully prepared.

The Chief Justice proposed that a committee of senior officials could reach out directly to schools and petitioners facing implementation difficulties. Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, appearing for the petitioners, opposed the idea of another committee, saying the matter required a clear decision. He argued that the challenge was not merely the introduction of a third language but the changing of language choices after students had progressed through several years of schooling, citing a petitioner school where students who had studied Spanish since Class 4 were shifted to Sanskrit under the new framework.