Make Hindi must for Class 1-8: PIL

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has been moved for a direction to the Centre to make Hindi compulsory for all students of Class 1-8 across the country to promote unity and national integration.

In a PIL filed by Delhi BJP leader Ashwini Kumar Upadhyaya said it will promote fraternity, unity and national integration, the great golden goals as set out in Preamble of the Constitution. The plea, likely to come up for hearing next week, referred to various constitutional provisions and non-execution of the three-language formula enunciated in the 1968 National Policy Resolution by the Centre in consultation with the states.

The petitioner said besides the fact that Hindi is the official language as has been enunciated in the Article 343 of the Constitution, it is spoken and used in major part of the country. There are only few states where there is only regional language is spoken.

He said Article 21A was inserted in the Constitution in the belief that the value of equality, social justice and democracy and the creation of a just and humane society can be achieved only through the inclusive universal elementary education to all the children aged 6-14 years. However, it is very unfortunate that study of Hindi is not compulsory for all the students of Class 1-8 standard.