The Supreme Court of India has agreed to list next week a Public Interest Litigation challenging the Central Board of Secondary Education’s decision to make a third language compulsory for Class 9 and 10 students from the 2026-27 academic year. Chief Justice of India Surya Kant agreed to the urgent listing after Senior Advocate Mukul Rohatgi made an oral request on behalf of students, teachers, and parents across India.
What Rohatgi argued in court
Rohatgi placed the core grievance plainly before the CJI. Students currently in Class 8 will be required to pick up a new third language when they enter Class 9 from July 2026, and will be expected to have sufficient proficiency to face examination by Class 10. His submission was direct: “How can a student of Class 9 take a new language and give exam in 10th? This will create chaos.” The bench agreed to take up the matter on Monday.
The CBSE policy under challenge
CBSE issued Circular No. Acad-33/2026 on May 15, 2026, aligning the board’s language requirements with the National Education Policy 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework. From July 1, 2026, Class 9 students must study three languages designated as R1, R2, and R3. At least two of the three must be native Indian languages. A foreign language may be taken as R3 only if the first two are Indian languages, or alternatively as an additional fourth subject beyond the compulsory three.
On assessment, CBSE has built a transitional concession into the framework. The third language R3 will be assessed internally and through school-based evaluation rather than the Class 10 board examination. The performance will appear on the student’s certificate, but students will not be barred from board examinations for failing R3 during the transition period. The policy aligns with an earlier implementation of three-language requirements from Class 6 in some aspects.
Why the petition has traction
The implementation timeline is the central concern driving the petition. Students who are about to enter Class 9 in July 2026 have had no opportunity to begin studying their third language. Most school curricula have not been restructured to accommodate the new requirement. Teachers trained in the relevant Indian languages may not be available across all CBSE-affiliated schools, particularly in states where certain Indian languages have limited institutional presence.
The NEP 2020’s three-language formula has broader policy backing but has consistently faced implementation challenges around teacher availability, curriculum readiness, and the added academic burden on students already navigating board examination preparation. The CBSE circular’s May 2026 issuance for a July 2026 implementation has compressed any meaningful transition period to under two months.
The Supreme Court’s willingness to list the matter urgently signals that the bench considers the challenge worthy of examination, though no stay on the policy has been granted at this stage.
This article is for informational purposes only and is based on court proceedings and publicly available CBSE circulars.