SC to hear next week plea against CBSE’s three-language policy for Class 9 students

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to list next week a petition filed by parents and teachers from New Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida and Chennai challenging the Central Board of Secondary Education’s (CBSE) new policy mandating the study of three languages for Class 9 students.

The petition was mentioned before a Bench comprising Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justice Joymalya Bagchi and Justice Vipul M. Pancholi by senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, who argued that the sudden introduction of the requirement would disrupt students’ preparation for Class 10 board examinations and place an unreasonable academic burden on them.

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Rohatgi submitted that students who had so far been studying only two languages would now suddenly be required to learn an additional language at the Class 9 stage and appear in examinations in Class 10, creating confusion and academic chaos.

Taking note of the submissions, the Bench said that the matter would be listed for hearing next week.

The challenge relates to a CBSE circular issued on May 15, bringing the “Scheme of Studies” in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) 2023.

Under the revised framework, students entering Class 9 from July 1, 2026, would be required to study three languages, with at least two being Indian languages. A foreign language may be opted for only if the other two are Indian languages, or it may be taken as an additional fourth subject.

According to the petitioners, the new policy marks a significant departure from CBSE’s earlier April 9, 2026 notification, which had deferred implementation of the third-language requirement at the Class 9 level until the academic session 2029–30.

The plea contends that the sudden implementation of the policy imposes an academic burden on students already preparing for board examinations, while also suffering from lack of infrastructure, trained teachers and adequate study material.
It further alleges that directing Class 9 students to rely on Class 6-level textbooks for learning the additional language reflects pedagogical inadequacy rather than meaningful language learning.

The petition also raises concerns regarding the unequal impact of the policy on students from non-Hindi-speaking States and points to the absence of a clear assessment framework for the newly introduced third language.