A woman has approached the Madras high court seeking direction to the Union government to include regional languages listed under the VIII Schedule of the Constitution, preferably Tamil in Tamil Nadu, as a mode of writing answers in the IIT joint entrance examinations (JEE) scheduled on April 8. A division bench of Chief Justice M.Y. Eqbal and Justice T.S. Sivagnanam ordered notice to the chairman, IIT council and the Union government on a public interest litigation by R. Ovia of Chennai. The petitioner said that in 2010-11 about three lakh students in Tamil Nadu took the higher secondary examination in Tamil and several students were from a rural background. The information broucher for the JEE, Ovia pointed out, said that candidates can opt to take the test in English or Hindi but would have to exercise the choice while applying. The Union Public Service Commission and the Railway Recruitment Board conduct examinations for recruitment in various categories in regional languages, she said. The RBI Young Scholars Award Scheme is also being conducted in 12 regional languages by the RBI and National Council of Education, Research and Training, she said. Hence, the Centre not including regional languages as a mode of examination is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution, she said.
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