3 min readNew DelhiMay 12, 2026 04:51 PM IST
The Supreme Court Tuesday asked the Rajasthan government to frame a comprehensive policy to introduce the Rajasthani language in schools and colleges in the state.
“We deem it appropriate to direct the State of Rajasthan to formulate an appropriate and comprehensive policy for the effective implementation of the constitutional mandate relating to the mother tongue-based education, particularly in the backdrop of the National Education Policy, 2020,” a bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta said.
It asked the state to “take necessary measures to recognise and accord due status to the Rajasthani language as local/regional language for educational purposes and to progressively facilitate its adoption as a medium of instruction”.
The court said it should be implemented initially during the foundational and preparatory stages of schooling, and progressively at higher levels, aligning with constitutional principles and pedagogical requirements/
The judgement came on an appeal challenging the Rajasthan HC order, which dismissed the prayer to include Rajasthani as a language in schools and in the syllabus of the state teacher eligibility examination.
The Supreme Court said that Rajasthani is presently being taught as a subject in the universities across the state, “yet the procrastinating stand consistently taken by the state is that only those languages included in the 8th Schedule to the Constitution are being taught as additional languages in government primary and upper primary schools.”
The judgement said that “such a position…discloses an apparent pedantic approach for the academic recognition of Rajasthani at the higher education level itself belies all the suggestions that the language lacks institutional or pedagogical acceptance.”
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The bench said its intervention was “necessitated by the palpable vacuum presently operating in the arena of significant constitutional importance”. The High Court had refused to intervene in the matter, saying it is a matter of policy.
But the Supreme Court said it cannot remain “silent spectator to the stark dilution of the rights” so clearly recognised in the Constitutional text, legislative enactments and binding precedents.
“While it is not the province of this court to enter upon the arena of policy formulation, it is nonetheless its solemn Constitutional duty to ensure that the guarantees enshrined in Part 3 of the Constitution are not rendered illusory by executive inaction or indifference.”
The bench added, “Once the Union has itself through legislative measures and policy frameworks acknowledged the necessity of imparting education in a language intelligible to the child, a corresponding obligation arises for the states to take timely, effective and purposive steps towards its realization. A failure to discharge such obligations can’t be countenanced, for constitutional rights once recognized, must be translated into tangible outcomes and cannot be permitted to languish as mere abstractions.”
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