The Supreme Court has directed the Union government and the Central Board of Secondary Education to extend the third-language board examination exemption to current Class 6 students, aligning their transition terms with concessions already granted to higher grades.
A three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi, and Justice V. Mohana ruled that sixth-grade pupils should receive the identical relief provided to students in Classes 7, 8, and 9. The court instructed the CBSE to file its formal response affidavit within four weeks, allowed two weeks thereafter for any rejoinder, and scheduled the next hearing in six weeks.
Dispute Over Rollout Timeline
Appearing for the Centre and the CBSE, Solicitor General Tushar Mehta and Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati opposed granting an exemption to the current Class 6 cohort, maintaining that the curriculum overhaul should take effect immediately. Mehta reported that out of roughly 28,000 CBSE-affiliated schools, nearly 99 per cent had already instituted the framework and acquired necessary instructional materials, leaving only about 1.2 per cent facing transition hurdles.
Despite these submissions, the bench favoured transitional relief. Justice Bagchi highlighted the merits of a phased rollout or “soft launch,” observing that deferring mandatory enforcement to 2027 would provide schools additional time to recruit qualified instructors and secure learning materials.
Chief Justice Kant suggested constituting a committee of senior administrative officials to engage directly with struggling schools and petitioners. However, senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing the petitioners, opposed establishing another panel and pressed for an authoritative judicial determination.
Mid-Stream Curriculum Shifts Challenged
Sankaranarayanan argued that the grievance extended beyond introducing a third language, pointing to the disruption caused when students are forced to alter academic tracks after years of schooling. He cited petitioner Delhi Public School, where students who had pursued Spanish instruction since Class 4 were required to shift to Sanskrit under the revised mandate.
The proceedings follow an earlier directive on September 17, when the apex court asked the CBSE to weigh deferring the mandatory study of three languages for sixth-grade pupils until the academic session commencing in 2027.
Assessment Rules and Policy Background
Under a CBSE circular issued on June 29, students currently in Classes 7, 8, and 9 who previously enrolled in two non-native languages must take up one additional Indian language through Class 10. However, this third subject will be graded strictly through internal school-level evaluations, sparing students from a centralized CBSE board examination upon reaching Class 10.
The board’s curriculum restructuring is intended to implement the National Education Policy 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework for School Education 2023. The framework mandates three languages, specifying that at least two must be indigenous Indian languages, designated as Bhartiya Bhashas.
The CBSE classifies Hindi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Bengali, Punjabi, Gujarati, Odia, and Assamese as Indian languages, whereas English, French, German, Arabic, and Spanish are categorized as non-native languages.
