Omission of Tamil in ASI course looks like a deliberate act, says HC

“Though the omission of Tamil from the list of classical language may look inadvertent at the outset, it seems that omission was deliberate. The authorities had taken a wrong approach by issuing such notification without caution,” said a division of bench comprising of N Kirubakaran and B Pugazhendhi.

Recently, the department of archaeology issued a notification for admission of a postgraduate diploma in PT Deendayal Udadhyaya Institute of Archaeology in which the minimum qualification was mentioned as an MA in Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit. As Tamil, the first announced classical language in the country has been omitted, it created a furore in the State as Opposition parties followed by the State government took the issue. Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami, on Thursday, wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to include MA Tamil as the minimum qualification for admission in the institute. Based on the advertisement S Ramesh Kumar, from Sivaganga, filed a plea in the High Court asking it to issue a writ to include Tamil as the minimum qualification.

When the plea was heard on Friday, Additional Solicitor General Victoria Gowri, who appeared in the High Court, informed that a corrigendum was issued on October 8 where all the classical languages such as Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Odia along with Arabic, Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit were included as a minimum qualification for the admission.

Judges question Gowri about the action taken on the officials for issuing the advertisement and directed the central government to file the report on the action taken on the officials by October 28. Judges also directed the central government to file the details of the number of classical languages in the country and asked whether Arabic, Pali and Prakrit were classical languages. Judges further directed the Centre to reply if the three languages were not classical languages, why were they added in the list.